Burlington March20 PDF

march 2020
NEW RESEARCH ON ART AND ITS HISTORY MARCH 2020
Drawings by Verrocchio, Lequeu, Boccioni and Osen

An Artemisia Gentileschi discovery | A cameo by Sostratos | Reflections on Arte Povera
Troy in London | Canova and Thorvaldsen in Milan | Dora Maar in Paris
the burlington magazine
no. 1404 vol. 162
COVER_MAR20.indd 2 18/02/2020 22:17

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Pietro
Tacca
Robilant+Voena
robilantvoena.com Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist
Late 16th / early 17th century, bronze, on an ebonized
wood and pietre dure base, 123 x 51 x 21 cm.
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TEFAF
Maastricht
7 to 15 March 2020
march20tomasso.qxp_Agnews 14/02/2020 15:52 Page 2
Tomasso Brothers
Fine Art
tomassobrothers.co.uk
march20pampoulides.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 14/02/2020 15:49 Page 1
L U L L O · P A M P O U L I D E S
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E XPERIENCE 7,000 Y E ARS

OF ART HISTORY
7 – 15 MARCH 2020
THE NE THERL AND
DS
IN V I TAT I O N O N LY
5 & 6 MARCH
G EN ER A L A D M IS S I O N
7 – 15 MARCH
T E FA F.C O M
# tefa f
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.
:C O M
M I C H A E L H A H N D E S I G N
D I R E C T I O N
K U N S T K A M M E R . G E O R G L A U E
wonders are collectable

.A R T
B R U C H H A U S
TEFAF . MAASTRICHT . 7 – 15 M A R C H 2020

www.kunstkammer.com
:J E N S
P H O T O G R A P H Y
R E N A I S S A N C E C U T L E R Y
I N I T S C A S E I N T H E F O R M O F A T R O U T
ITALIAN, CA 1570 . LENGTH 34 CM
10:24
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7th-15th March The Mecc, MaasTrichT, NeTherlaNds
THE THIRTY-THIRD edition of TEFAF Maastricht will once more

eclipse all other commercial art fairs due to its broad scope and
the sheer quantity of high quality objects for sale. Private
collectors, institutional buyers and art lovers from around the
globe will make the journey to southern Holland to view and
perhaps buy the finest art works on the market. Building on last
year’s more transparent selection policy, there will be twenty-
five new exhibitors out of a total number of two hundred and
eighty, presenting works from twenty-nine classifications. Fine
The Alessandri and decorative arts for sale will range from ancient objects to
pietre dure table, modern and contemporary works. In these pages we attempt to
attributed to convey the breadth of the fair by illustrating objects from various
Dernadino
Buontalenti categories including tribal art, antiquities, old masters, antiques,
(1531–1608), Grand Asian art, works on paper, and modern art. Also presented at the
Ducal workshops,
fair will be twentieth-century design, jewellery, manuscripts,
Florence. c.1600.
Hard stones and silver, textiles, ceramics and photography.
giltwood (base),
length 107 cm. One of the biggest draws for visitors this year will be the showing
BURZIO, LONDON of a rare landscape by Vincent van Gogh on the stand of London
gallery, Dickinson. This large-scale oil, Peasant woman in front of
a farmhouse, was painted in 1885 during Van Gogh’s time living in
Nuenen in the Brabant region of Holland.
The TEFAF Art Symposium will focus on the recently commis-
sioned report: Art Patronage in the 21st Century, with a presen-
tation by the author Anders Petterson. This will be followed by a
discussion group.
TEFAF’s commitment to cultural heritage continues with finan-
cial donations through the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund and
the Prince Claus Fund. The former has awarded money to the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art to assist with specific projects. These are the
restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Kaufmann Office (V&A)
and the analysis and restoration of Pietá, an oil by Melchor Pérez
Holguin (LACMA). The Prince Claus Fund will be supporting the
preservation of the cultural heritage of Suriname by helping to
St Sebastian,
by Claude Dejoux finance preparedness for manmade and natural disasters.
Vadans (1732–1816).
c.1778–79. Terracotta, For information please visit: tefaf.com/fairs/tefaf-maastricht
height 35.2 cm.
LULLO PAMPOULIDES,
LONDON
Head of a smiling
immortal. China, late
Ming dynasty (16th– Rest on the flight into
17th century). Egypt, by Pompeo
Red sandstone, Batoni (1708–87). Oil on
height 25 cm. canvas, 63 by 48 cm.
SYDNEY L. MOSS LTD, TRINITY FINE ART,
LONDON LONDON
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DOMENICO PIERATTI
(Florence 1600 – Rome 1656)
Bust of Young Marcus Aurelius
Marble; overall height 90 cm
WALTER PADOVANI
Via Santo Spirito, 26/A, Milan
P. +39 02.76.31.89.07
www.walterpadovani.it
TEFAF Maastricht
March 7 - 15, 2020
STAND 234
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 
—
 · 
—
Portuguese, European and fusion art
For over 30 years São Roque has held an undisputed reputation in the world of Art and Antiques for the rarity and exclusivity of
its artworks, in an unmatched symbiosis of quality and guaranteed authenticity.
A reference for both private and institutional collectors as well as for international Museums, São Roque’s team of specialists
ensure that it maintains its preeminent position in an ever-growing and globalized Art and Antiques market.
J B
Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 17th century – first half
Prov.: S.P. collection, Oporto
A large Ceylonese silver mounted ivory box, built in one-centimetre
thick dovetail joined ivory panels, most certainly designed to store rare
and valuable objects.
The whole surface is profusely high-relief carved with large vine scrolls
and stylised lotus motifs, characteristic of decorative compositions from
Ceylon, while its sculptural subtlety is clearly inspired by European Dutch market in the second-half of the 17th century. These, although
printed works. Identical refinement is evident in the sophistication of comparable in their floral decorative elements, are distinct in their
the silver mounts and exceptional openwork extant key. execution and scale of motifs, which became larger and shallower (see
The box carving quality is analogous to the best pieces produced for Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no.º BK–1971–30).
the Portuguese market, its unusually wide and thick ivory plaques The artistic and technical qualities that define this jewellery box, set it
endowing it with the opulence of earlier caskets made in the Ceylonese apart from all other known analogous pieces credited to this rare South
Imperial city and contrasts with other ivory examples produced for the Asian production.

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N I
Nippo-Portuguese, Momoyama period (1573 – 1603)
Height: 10.0 cm
An important dark-brown and black lacquered inrô of sprinkled maki-e
decoration, enriched by mother-of-pearl tesserae elements.
As with other typologies of Namban objects, either for domestic use
or for export, it reflects the allure of the newly arrived Portuguese —
known as ‘Barbarians of the South’ or nanban-jin — portraying them
as stereotypical yet caricatural figures in their characteristic late 16th
century costume.
SÃO ROQUE — ANTIQUES & ART GALLERY
On one side the artist depicts three figures, possibly jesuit priests, and RUA DE S. BENTO, 199B § 1250 – 219 LISBON – PORTUGAL
on the other two conversing merchants or officials.
T+ F +351 213 960 734 § Mobile +351 962 363 260
Of great iconographic relevance only two other related inrôs are known, E GERAL@SAOROQUEARTE.PT
one of which at the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet in WWW.ANTIGUIDADESSAOROQUE.COM
Paris.

Peasant woman in front of a farmhouse, by Vincent van Gogh (1853–90).

1885. Oil on canvas, 62.9 by 112.4 cm.
DICKINSON GALLERY, LONDON AND NEW YORK
Saddled horse, seen in profile, by Bénigne Gagneraux (1756–95).

Oil on canvas, 62 by 75 cm.
JEAN-LUCBARONI, LONDON AND MARTY DE CAMBIAIRE, PARIS
Head of the young

Lucius Verus (after
the antique). North
Italian, first quarter
of the 16th
century. Bronze,
height (including
Reclining male nude, by Egon Schiele (1890–1918). 1910. socle) 64 cm.
Watercolour and pencil on paper, 31 by 43 cm. TOMASSO FINEART,
W&K-WIENERROITHER & KOHLBACHER, VIENNA LONDON AND LEEDS
Memento mori relief, Reliquary figure.

by Christoph Daniel Kota people, Obamba
Schenck (1633–91). group, Gabon (19th
c.1685. Ivory, century). Wood,
height 6 cm. copper, brass and
KUNSTKAMMER GEORG iron, height 56.5 cm.
LAUE, MUNICH AND GALERIE BERNARD
LONDON DULON
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Shawabti of
Tchahorpate, son of
Tefnout. Egypt, late Edificio universal, by
period, Dynasty XXX, Joaquín Torres-García
reign of Nectanebo II (1874–1949). 1931. Oil
(360–342 BC). Faience, on canvas, 72 by 65 cm.
height 26 cm. GALERIA SUR, LA BARRA,
THE MERRIN GALLERY, PUNTA DEL ESTE
INC., NEW YORK
Judith and Holofernes,

by Francesco Furini Christ resurrected,
(1604–46). c.1642. by Alessandro Algardi
Oil on canvas, (1598–1654).
129 by 93 cm. Terracotta,
ROB SMEETS height 52 cm.
OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, WALTER PADOVANI,
GENEVA MILAN
Allegory of touch, by
Michiel Sweerts
Bust of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and Bust of Jean-Jacques (1618–64). Oil on
Rousseau, by Jean Antoine Houdon (1741–1828). 1789 and 1788 respectively. canvas, 75 by 60 cm.
Marble, height 29 cm and 26.7 cm. ROBILANT + VOENA,
DANIEL KATZ GALLERY, LONDON LONDON
march20trinity.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 17/02/2020 15:14 Page 1
TRINITY FINE ART

TEFAF
MAASTRICHT
2020
Sebastiano Ricci
The battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs
(detail)
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L’ESPRIT CRÉATEUR
OLD MASTER DRAWINGS
Friday 27 March 2020, Drouot Paris
Antoine Coypel (1661-1722)

Study for an Allegory to the Glory of Louis XIV
Black chalk, red chalk and white chalk
11,8 x 16,7 in.
Old Master Paintings & Drawings Specialist

Grégoire Lacroix
+33 (0)1 47 45 08 19 - +33 (0)6 98 20 77 42
lacroix@aguttes.com
Upcoming auction
* without outside shareholders
OLD MASTER PAINTINGS – June 2020
Free valuations by appointment
First Independent Auction House in France*

Neuilly-sur-Seine • Paris • Lyon • Aix-en-Provence • Brussels
aguttes.com | Follow us
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London’s
longest
running
art fair
Friday 1 May to Sunday 3 May 2020
Royal Academy of Arts
Piccadilly · London w1j 0bd
Friday 1 May 10am–10pm

Saturday 2 May 10am–6pm
Sunday 3 May 10am–6pm
londonoriginalprintfair.com
@Londonprintfair
march20kunsthauszurich.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 17/02/2020 15:32 Page 1
The
Giuseppe Cesari, called Cavaliere d’Arpino, A Sabine woman

defends herself against an attacking Roman, 1635/36, Kunsthaus Zürich
Poetry
of
Line
Masterpieces
of Italian drawing
Kunst-
haus
Zurich
31.1. – 26.4.20
march20page20.qxp_Internet and Contacts 18/02/2020 10:21 Page 1
Venator & Hanstein

Book and Print Auctions
SPRING SALES 2020
20 MARCH
RARE BOOKS MANUSCRIPTS
AUTOGRAPHS OLD PRINTS
21 MARCH
MODERN PRINTS
CONTEMPORARY PRINTS
Fernand Léger / Blaise Cendrars

La fin du monde filmée par l’Ange N.-D.
Paris 1919
Cäcilienstrasse 48 · 50667 Cologne · Tel. +49-221-257 54 19 · info@venator-hanstein.de · www.venator-hanstein.de
XX THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 162 | MARCH 2020

march20artcurial.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 17/02/2020 15:36 Page 1
ARTCURIAL
Jean-Antoine WATTEAU
Studies of women seated (recto)
Red chalk
Estimate: 40 000 – 60 000 €
Théodore GÉRICAULT
Double sided sheet of male nude studies
Pen and brown ink
Estimate: 25 000 – 35 000 €
Anton Raphaël MENGS
The Judgment of Paris
Pen and brown ink, brown wash and white highlights
Estimate: 40 000 – 60 000 €
OLDthMASTER &
19 CENTURY ART
18th Century Drawings, the Taste of a
Brusselian Collector
Exhibition Auction Contact
From Saturday 21st to Wednesday 25th March 2020 - 6pm Matthieu Fournier
Tuesday 24th of March 2020 +33 (0)1 42 99 20 26
7 Rond-Point mfournier@artcurial.com
des Champs-Élysées
75008 Paris www.artcurial.com
march20stanzaedelborgo (1).qxp_Agnews 18/02/2020 13:29 Page 1
STANZA DEL BORGO

M A S T E R D R Aw i N G S A N D P R i N T S , J A PA N E S E P R i N T S
Domenico Cresti, known as il Passignano (1556–1638)

Jesus among the Doctors, Black chalk 290 x 216 mm.
Provenance: ignazio Hugford (Florence 1703–1778), his mount in green and grey
Member
ViA F. TuRATi, 7 20121 MiLANO

tel. +39 02 6598203 - info@stanzadelborgo.it
www.stanzadelborgo.it
MARTIN GRÄSSLE FLORIAN HÄRB

GALERIE ARNOLDI-LIVIE
Galeriestr. 2b. | D-80539 München
Tel: +49 89 22 59 20
www.arnoldi-livie.de gallery@arnoldi-livie.de
HANNS ULRICH FRANCK

(Kaufbeuren 1603 –1680 Augsburg)
Hercules, Nessus and Deianira
Black and white chalk on beige paper; 212 mm (diam.)
Edgar Degas (Paris 1834 – 1917 Paris) EXHIBITING AT THE SALON DU DESSIN, PARIS
Buste de danseuse, c. 1896 25-30 March 2020 – Stand 4
Black chalk, 40 x 59 cm Salvatorplatz 4 5 Dalmeny Court
Atelier stamp, lower left: ‘Degas’ (Lugt 658) 80333 Munich 8 Duke Street, St. James's
contact@graessle-art.com London SW1Y 6BL
+49 172 819 7556 fh@florianhaerb.com
Study for Lemoisne 1246
www.florianhaerb.com
By appointment +44 774 779 1670
TEFAF stand 339 Salon du Dessin stand 15
Francesco FURINI
(1603 - 1646)
Study of a nude man holding a stick
black and red chalk, 210 x 136 mm
74 rue de Seine 75006 Paris +33 (0)1 43 26 89 80 www.galeriepaulproute.fr
THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 162 | MARCH 2020 XXIII

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SALON DU DESSIN – 25th to 30th March 2020

PALAIS BRONGNIART, PLACE DE LA BOURSE, 75002 PARIS
THE TWENTY-NINTH edition of the Salon du Dessin will again occupy

the neoclassical halls of the Palais Brongniart, the historic home of the
Paris stock exchange. The location in the 2nd arondissement is within
the gallery district and a short walk from the Musée du Louvre and other
fine public art collections. The fair has become an important fixture of
the collecting calendar for institutions and the public who can acquire
works and meet with experts and fellow connoisseurs. Thirty-nine inter-
national dealers will present works spanning most European schools
from the Renaissance to modern and contemporary movements. There
will be four new galleries exhibiting this year including Ary Jan (special-
A Greek horseman fighting a
lion, by Antoine-Charles-
ists in Oriental art), Taménaga (dealers in Japanese and European mod-
Horace Vernet, called Carle ernism) and Romano Fine Arts (selling old master works).
Vernet (1758–1836). 1789.
Every drawing will be authenticated and checked for quality so that
Black pencil, grey wash with
stumping and chalk buyers can enjoy an atmosphere of candour and have confidence in
highlights on prepared all acquisitions.
paper, 38 by 33 cm.
DIDIER AARON & CIE, PARIS
The International Symposium will be devoted to the topic of gardens
and botany; drawings have always served as an essential tool for the
scientific and aesthetic appreciation of nature.
This year the institutional loan exhibition will be sourced from the
holdings of the museums of Marseille. Selected drawings will also
embrace the theme of nature – in particular, gardens and botany.
Alongside this display will be the launch of a catalogue of 18th-century
drawings from Marseille institutions.
The ever-popular Drawings Week will take in over twenty-three
museum exhibitions and graphic art collections including those of
the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Centre Pompidou. Private
visits will be arranged to many of these institutions for curator-led
tours. New participants to Drawings Week in 2020 will include the
Musée de l’Armée, Musée Roybet Fould, Musée Jean-Jacques
Henner and Fondation Jean et Simone Lurçat.
For more information on the fair, Drawings Week and the
Symposium please visit: www.salondudessin.com
Woman combing her hair, the letter, by Edgar Degas (1834–1917).

Charcoal on paper, laid down on board, 56.3 by 62.2 cm.
JEAN-LUC BARONI, LONDON AND MARTY DE CAMBIAIRE, PARIS
The fallen roofer, François Bonvin (1817–87). 1876.

Black and red chalk on paper, 36.5 by 17.5 cm.
MARTIN GRÄSSLE & FLORIAN HÄRB, MUNICH
The glutton, by Henri de

Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–
1901). 1892. Graphite on An artichoke, by Jacques le Moyne de
paper with artist’s stamp, Morgues (1533–88). Watercolour and
16.3 by 10 cm. gouache on paper, 14 by 10.1 cm.
GALERIE AB, PARIS STEPHEN ONGPIN FINE ART, LONDON
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CHARLES RATTON & GUY LADRIÈRE

ANTIQUE - MOYEN AGE - ARTS PRIMITIFS - dESSINS
TABLEAUX - SCULPTURES - OBJETS d’ART
MICHELANGELO ANSELMI
(Lucca 1491 – Parma 1554)
The coronation of the Virgin
black and white chalks on blue paper, 22.5 x 28.3 cm
EXHIBITION
OLD MASTERS AND 19TH CENTURY DRAWINGS

23 March – 3 April 2020
11, quai Voltaire, 75007 Paris. Tél (0) 1 42.61.29.79

e-mail: galerie.ratton.ladriere@wanadoo.fr
Instagram: galerierattonladriere
www.ratton-ladriere.com
march20martydecambiaire.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 17/02/2020 16:18 Page 1
Jean-Luc Baroni & Marty de Cambiaire

PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS
EXHIBITING AT THE SALON DU DESSIN, PARIS: 25TH TO 30TH MARCH 2020: STAND 23
CLAUDE GELLÉE called LE LORRAIN

Chamagne 1600 or 164/1605 – Rome 1682
Moses and the Burning Bush
Black chalk and brown wash. Framing lines in brown ink.
Autograph inscription on the verso:
‘Claudio Gillee Dito il lorenses 1663 fecit’ and by a later hand
at the bottom under the framing line ‘F. PRODIGO’.
195 x 255 mm (711 1̸ 6 x 10 in.)

16 place Vendôme – Paris 1er
T : +33 (0)1 49 26 07 03
E : info@jlbaroni.com / info@martydecambiaire.com
W : www.jlbaroni.com / www.martydecambiaire.com
march20martydecambiaire.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 17/02/2020 16:19 Page 2

PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS
EXHIBITING AT TEFAF MAASTRICHT: 7TH TO 15TH MARCH 2020: STAND 308
DOMENICO PULIGO
Florence 1492–1527
Portrait of Agnolo di Taddeo di Agnolo Gaddi
Oil on panel
Inscribed (on the upper edge): ‘GNOLO DI TADDEO DI AGN: GADDI’
(the family seal in red wax on the back of the panel)
37.6 x 48 cm (143 4̸ x 187 8̸ in.)

16 place Vendôme – Paris 1er
T : +33 (0)1 49 26 07 03
E : info@jlbaroni.com / info@martydecambiaire.com
W : www.jlbaroni.com / www.martydecambiaire.com
march20salonround-up.qxp_Master Drawings Roundup 17/02/2020 16:23 Page 2
SALON DU DESSIN – 25th to 30th March 2020

PALAIS BRONGNIART, PLACE DE LA BOURSE, 75002 PARIS
Composition with two women, by Charles Edouard Jeanneret, called Le Corbusier (1887–1955). 1937.
Ink and gouache on paper, 20.5 by 30.5 cm.
BRAME & LORENCEAU, PARIS
Study of a male nude seated
on a plinth, by Taddeo Zuccari
(1529–66). Red chalk on ivory
laid paper, 39.6 by 26.5 cm.
ROMANO FINE ART, FLORENCE
Shepherd and his sheep,

by Charles-Emile
Jacque (1813–94).
Charcoal and white
chalk, 43.9 by 36.3 cm.
GALERIE PAUL
PROUTÉ, PARIS
Pyramids, by Victor Hugo (1802–85).
Pen and brush with brown ink and wash, 23 by 37.5 cm.
ARNOLDI-LIVIE, MUNICH
Weapon handling: ‘drop

the pike against your right
foot and draw the sword’ ,
by Jacques de Gheyn II
(1565–1629). Black pen-
cil, pen and black ink
and gray wash. Incised
Rain, by Georges Seurat (1859–91). for transfer.
Conté pencil on Ingres paper, 23.8 by 30.2 cm. HABOLDT PICTURA,
W.M. BRADY, NEW YORK PARIS
march20bordes.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 18/02/2020 13:32 Page 1
16th TO 20th CENTURY

DRAWINGS
EXHIBITION
FROM MARCH 24TH
TO APRIL 24TH, 2020
Galerie Alexis BORDES
Joseph Vivien (1657-1734)
4, rue de la Paix - 75002 PARIS Portrait of Madeleine-Geneviève Guillieaumon, née Dupuis
Tél. : 01 47 70 43 30 c. 1722
expert@alexis-bordes.com Pastel on paper laid down on canvas
www.alexis-bordes.com 79 x 64 cm. (31 1/8 x 25 3/16 in.)
AB d D i 2020 APB li VIVIEN 238 308 02 i dd 1 14/02/2020 17

17:53
53
CARL JUSTI-STIPENDIEN ZUR

KUNSTGESCHICHTE SPANIENS
CARL JUSTI SCHOLARSHIPS
FOR THE STUDY OF THE
HISTORY OF SPANISH ART
The Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica (CEEH), Technische
Universität Dresden and Universität Hamburg are delighted to
announce the creation of two fully-funded doctoral
scholarships for the study of Spanish Art starting on 1st of
October 2020. The scholarships are named after Carl Justi,
one of the first German art historians who dedicated himself
to the study and research of Spanish art in the 19th century
and who is especially known for his biographies on Diego
Velázquez (1888) and on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1892).
The scholarships are endowed with €20.000, annually for a
duration of 36 months for living costs and travel with the Minerva showcases the beauty and
option of extension to four years. There are no additional sophistication of ancient civilisations.
university fees. The doctoral thesis can be written in German
With spectacular illustrations and
or in English.
exciting features, each issue will give
TOPICS: you an inside view of the archaeology,
The doctoral projects should be located in the area of Spanish culture, and art of the ancient world.
art including its reception by German artists, art historians,
collectors, and critics. Proposals relating to the period between SUBSCRIBE NOW FROM ONLY £28.50 A YEAR
the Middle Ages and the first two decades of the 20th century
Visit www.minervamagazine.com/burlington
are particularly welcome.
The application deadline is 30th April 2020.
For application requirements and further information,
please visit
for the scholarship at the Technische Universität Dresden:
tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/ikm/kuge/der-fachbereich/ausschreibungen
for the scholarship at the Universität Hamburg:
uni-hamburg.de/en/uhh/stellenangebote/wissenschaftliches-
personal/30-04-20-stipendium-engl.pdf
Applicants should send their applications to:
Prof. Dr. Henrik Karge, Technische Universität Dresden:
henrik.karge@tu-dresden.de
Prof. Dr. Margit Kern, Universität Hamburg:
margit.kern@uni-hamburg.de
It is possible and recommended to send the applications to
both universities and supervisors.
These scholarships have been created through the generosity
of CEEH (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica) in association
with the Carl Justi-Vereinigung e.V. zur Förderung der
kunstwissenschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit mit Spanien,
Portugal und Iberoamerika.
P I M L I CO u
F R E E F O R TAT E M E M B E R S
S u p po r ted by
Wit h a d ditio na l su p p o r t f ro m t h e
B ritish B a ro q u e E xhibitio n S u p p o r te r s Circ l e,
Tate A m e ric as F o u n datio n,
Tate I nte r natio na l Co u n cil a n d Tate Pat ro ns
A nto nio Ve r r io Th e S ea Triiump h of Charles I I c .1674 (d etail)
Roya l Co ll e c tio n Tr us t / © H e r Maje s t y Q u e e n Eliz a b et h I I 2019
XXX THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 162 | MARCH 2020

march20littletonandhennessy.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 18/02/2020 15:07 Page 1
L I T T L E TO N & H E N N E S S Y
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An exceptional Mughal-style pale celadon jade ‘chrysanthemum’ dish

Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736 –1795)
Dimensions: 15 cm. (6 in.) diameter
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march20daguerre.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 18/02/2020 14:02 Page 1
DAGUERRE
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Expert : Cabinet Turquin - Stéphane Pinta
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The Mathematician
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XXXVI THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 162 | MARCH 2020
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J.M.W. TURNER
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Contents
Volume 162 | Number 1404 | March 2020
Exhibitions
234 Canova Thorvaldsen: The Birth of
Modern Sculpture
by DAVID BINDMAN
237 Troy: Myth and Reality
by DANIEL R. STEWART
239 Alvaro Pirez d’Évora: A Portuguese Painter
in Italy on the Eve of the Renaissance
by GEOFFREY NUTTALL
241 History in Fashion: 1500 Years
of Embroidery in Fashion
by CHRISTIANE ELSTER
243 Michelangelo: Mind of the Master
by JOHN MARCIARI
Editorial 246 Feast and Fast: The Art of Food in
Europe, 1500–1800
179 Open access and printed journals by PHILIPPA GLANVILLE
248 Peter the Great: Collector, Scholar, Artist
by KAMILA KOCIAŁKOWSKA
180 Letters 250 Near Life: The Gipsformerei – 200 Years Books
of Casting Plaster
by ECKART MARCHAND 258 Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art
Articles 251 Dora Maar Museums, J.F. So
by JOANNA PAWLIK by JAMES C.S. LIN
181 A tale of two fragments: a Sostratos 253 Canada and Impressionism: 259 Joyas y alhajas del Alto Aragón:
cameo discovered and reconstructed New Horizons esmaltes y piedras preciosas de ajuares
by ITTAI GRADEL with an appendix by by DOMINIK BRABANT y tesoros históricos, C. Naya Franco
RICCARDO GENNAIOLI 255 Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig by KIRSTIN KENNEDY
188 A newly discovered David and Goliath and the Feminist Video Collectives 260 Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in
by Artemisia Gentileschi in France in the 1970s and 1980s the Dutch Revolt, M.A. Bass
by GIANNI PAPI with technical reports by by AMY TOBIN by ALBERT GODYCKI
SIMON GILLESPIE and TRACEY D. CHAPLIN 261 Engineering the Eternal City:
196 A Portuguese bishop’s pontifical mass Infrastructure, Topography, and the
service by Luigi Valadier Culture of Knowledge in Late Sixteenth-
by TERESA LEONOR M. VALE Century Rome, P.O. Long
204 A drawing by Verrocchio by JOSEPH CONNORS
by JOHANNES NATHAN 263 Giambologna: Court Sculptor to
Ferdinando I, A. Rudigier and B. Truyols
by DOROTHEA DIEMER
Shorter notices 264 Francesco Solimena (1657–1747) e le Arti
on drawings a Napoli, N. Spinosa, ed.
by STÉPHANE LOIRE
266 Raffinesse im Akkord: Meissener
216 Ornament from China: Porzellanmalerei und ihre Grafischen
sources for a garden folly design Vorlagen, C. Bodinek
by Jean-Jacques Lequeu by AILEEN DAWSON
by KEE IL CHOI JR 268 The Icon and the Square: Russian
219 A continuous line in Boccioni drawings Modernism and the Russo-Byzantine
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Revival, M. Taroutina
New York by ANDREW SPIRA
by ROSALIND MCKEVER 269 Pier Groups: Art and Sex Along the
224 Rediscovered drawings by Erwin New York Waterfront, J. Weinberg
Dominik Osen by JACK PARLETT
by GEMMA BLACKSHAW 270 Photography Performing Humor
Cover Detail of Female figure, by Umberto Boccioni. M. Bleyen and L. Decan, eds
1911. (p.221). by SETH GRAHAM
Review article Above left Detail of David with the head of Goliath,
by Artemisia Gentileschi. c.1639. (p.189).
Above Seated male nude, with separate study of his right arm,
271 SHORT REVIEWS
228 Recent exhibitions on Art Povera by Michelangelo. 1511. (p.245).
by MARTIN HOLMAN Above right Pyx, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. (p.196). 272 AMONG THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
CONTENTS_MAR20.indd 9 18/02/2020 22:11

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the burlington magazine foundation’s benefactors and supporters

Contributing institutions Commercial supporters Nicholas and Judith Goodison Past supporters
The Frick Collection, New York Bridgeman Images • John Sandoe Daisaku Ikeda • Jerwood Charitable The Ahmanson Foundation
The Morgan Library & Museum, Books Ltd • The European Fine Art Foundation • The late Paul Z. Arts Council England • Janet
New York • The Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation (TEFAF) Josefowitz • Samuel H. Kress de Botton • Gifford Combs
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MASTHEAD_MAR20.indd 10 18/02/2020 21:59

Editorial
Open access and printed journals
F
ounded in 1932, the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is including commercial, provided proper attribution is given to the author’.
Germany’s leading academic journal for art history. Although On the issue of how open-access publication is to be funded, cOAlition S
quarterly, not monthly, it is in many ways a cousin of The is less forthcoming: ‘There exist different models of financing and paying
Burlington Magazine, especially in its strong emphasis on for Open Access publications. cOAlition S recognises that there are a
empirical research. It too is financed by subscriptions, but, range of business models that can be used to achieve full and immediate
unlike the Burlington, which is the property of a charitable Open Access. cOAlition S calls for full transparency and monitoring of
trust, it is owned by an academic publisher, Deutscher Kunstverlag in publication costs and fees’. Nonetheless, it makes it clear that green open
Munich, part of the De Gruyter group. Another important difference is access (which it describes as the ‘repository route’) must be regarded simply
that its editorial staff hold salaried academic posts, which fund their work as an arrangement that is ‘transitional’ to gold access and that publishers
for the journal. In December last year they all resigned following a dispute with green open access should be undertaking ‘transformative agreements’
with Deutscher Kunstverlag about the issue of open access. In short, to move towards the goal of complete open access.
the editors wanted to move the journal to the highest standard of open In its response to the consultation carried out by cOAlition S in
access, in which the journal would be freely and permanently accessible 2018–19, the Association of Art Historians in the United Kingdom made
to everyone immediately after publication – so-called ‘gold’ access – and a number of important points.3 For example, the idea that open access
without article processing charges being imposed on contributors to means the right to ‘copy and redistribute the material in any medium or
replace the loss of subscriptions. Deutscher Kunstverlag refused.1 format’ may be applicable to scientific research, which is intended to be
This was not simply a matter of idealistic editors versus hard- reused and where results need to be replicable, but it is not appropriate for
nosed commerce. Being in receipt of indirect funding from universities the humanities and social sciences, ‘where not only the content but also
represented by the academic salaries of its editors laid the Zeitschrift für the form of the text is crucial’. The Association also points out that art
Kunstgeschichte vulnerable to the pressure on all university-funded research historians will be faced with paying fees that can be prohibitively costly
to be published in open access forms. Open access has its origins in for open-access licences for images. ‘Without a new funding structure in
scientific research and the justifiable belief that there should be free access place for Plan S, many authors, especially those early in their careers or
to work largely paid for by public or charitable funds. In most cases the without affiliation will simply be priced out of sufficiently illustrating their
cost of publication in scientific journals has been transferred to its authors articles if not from publishing in Open Access altogether’.
via article processing charges, which are paid by the authors’ universities This last point is answered to a degree by the policy adopted by some
or research institutions. This model has obvious difficulties for the very online journals of encouraging authors to make use of the exemptions to
different funding model for research in the humanities, but since that copyright law known as ‘fair dealing’ (or ‘fair use’ in the United States) and
research is also to a degree funded by universities it has been increasingly not paying any fees. This can only to a very limited degree help journals
accepted that open access is a prerequisite for publication in all disciplines. such as the Burlington that exist in printed as well as digital forms: for print,
Many journals – such as the Burlington – have adopted the less stringent high-resolution files are needed and they have to be paid for. Since open
version of open access known as ‘green’, in which the original publication access can by its very nature be applied only to digital publications, costing
is embargoed for a set length of time (usually a year, but six months in our models for its application need not take account of print, yet print still
case) and is then placed by its author in a freely accessible non-commercial remains essential to the funding models of many publishers. Many, if not
subject or institutional repository. In addition, in the case of art history, most, journals of art history count private individuals as well as institutions
in which publication usually involves third-person rights in the form of among their subscribers and many of those individuals are willing to pay
copyright images, it is accepted that the publisher cannot normally grant those subscriptions only because they receive a printed journal. Open access
open access to more than the text. is predicated on a scientific model of publicly funded research by academics
The compromise represented by green open access seems likely, in institutions producing research for fellow academics in institutions. Yet
however, to be only temporary. In 2018, a group of national research funding art history, like most of the humanities, has a far broader audience, who
organisations, with the support of the European Commission and the access research by diverse means in which physical publication remains
European Research Council, launched cOAlition S, which is designed to very important. How many scientists now look at printed journals? How
achieve ‘Plan S’, full and immediate open access to research publications in many scientists publish research in books? The editors of the Zeitschrift
all disciplines.2 cOAlition S states that ‘With effect from 2021, all scholarly für Kunstgeschichte have departed to set up a new online journal, 21: Beiträge
publications on the results from research funded by public or private zur Kunstgeschichte und visuellen Kultur (21: Inquiries into Art, History, and
grants provided by national, regional and international research councils the Visual).4 It looks very promising but it is also yet further evidence that
and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open the drive for universal open access is providing a powerful incentive for
Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access art-historical scholarship to abandon print. Is that really to be welcomed?
Repositories without embargo’. The definition of open access is very narrow
in its terms but very broad in its application: ‘The public must be granted 1 For a statement by the editors, see publications/plan-s-public-consultation-
https://arthist.net/archive/21570, response/, accessed 18th February
a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to share (i.e., accessed 18th February 2020. 2020.
2 See https://www.coalition-s.org/, 4 https://21-inquiries.eu/en/, accessed
copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (i.e., accessed 18th February 2020. 18th February 2020 The journal will
remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, 3 https://forarthistory.org.uk/ also be available as print on demand.
the burlington magazine | 162 | march 2020 179
EDITORIAL_MAR20.indd 179 18/02/2020 22:02

Letters
Freud and sculpture 1. Painter working, reflection, by Lucian Freud. 1993. Oil on canvas,
101.2 by 81.7 cm. (Private collection; © The Lucian Freud Archive;
Bridgeman Images).
Sir, In his review article ‘Portraits of Lucian Freud’ (January; pp.46–51)
2. Man pointing, by Alberto Giacometti. 1947. Bronze, 178 by 95 by
James Cahill comments on the ‘encrusted’ self-portrait Painter working, 52 cm. (© The Estate of Alberto Giacometti; DACS, London 2020).
reflection (Fig.1): ‘the first canvas in which the elderly Freud depicted
himself nude, his pose – palette knife flung out, legs apart – carries an ironic
echo of the swagger of the Apollo Belvedere’. The sculptural reference is contains the figure – although the poses are more like those of body casts
apposite, but Freud primarily seems to be referencing the appearance and from Pompeii. Freud’s most blatant reference to Classical Antiquity is
encrusted facture of a sculpture such as Alberto Giacometti’s Man pointing probably Naked man, back view (1991–92; Metropolitan Museum of Art,
(Fig.2), which is more obviously an ‘ironic echo’ of the Apollo Belvedere. New York), which transforms Leigh Bowery into a buttery Belvedere Torso.
A cast of Giacometti’s sculpture was acquired by the Tate Gallery in 1949. james hall
The ‘booted’ feet of the Freud and Giacometti are similar. Giacometti is
undoubtedly a key inspiration for Freud in his ‘encrusted’ period, both Spalliera panels at Longleat House
formally and in the persona he cultivated – the shabby, claustrophobic
studio; the interminable portrait sessions; the sexual predations. Sir, In the captions of the illustrations to Anne B. Barriault’s article about
But one could also make a larger point. If in Freud’s early years his work spalliera panels (January; pp.37–45) it is implied that the panels of 1493–94
overtly referenced painting and drawing (‘the Ingres of Existentialism’ etc.), of episodes from the life of Alexander the Great and Caesar’s crossing of
his later work is more emphatically in tune with sculpture. In the self- the Rubicon are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. While owned
portraits of the 1960s, his nose stops being straight and looks bent and by that institution, these remain in the Drawing Room at Longleat House,
mashed – an allusion to Auguste Rodin’s Man with the broken nose (1874–75; Wiltshire, as in 2005 they were accepted in lieu of tax to remain in situ,
Musée Rodin, Paris), which in turn alludes to Michelangelo’s broken in order to preserve what is the most authentic extant late nineteenth-
nose. The single figure was Freud’s forte and sculpture was an essential century arrangement of Italian Renaissance pictures in any British house.
inspiration: the sofa or bed often operated like the sculptor’s block that francis russell
180 the burlington magazine | 162 | march 2019
LETTERS_MAR20.indd 180 18/02/2020 13:15

A tale of two fragments:
a Sostratos cameo reconstructed
An unpublished fragment of a late Hellenistic cameo is here identified as part of a work
of exceptional size by Sostratos depicting Ariadne in a chariot pulled by centaurs,
of which another fragment is in the former Medici collection in Florence.
by ittai gradel, with an appendix by riccardo gennaioli
A
fragment of an outstanding late Hellenistic cameo nor has any trace of it yet come to light in printed records, such as
in a nineteenth-century diamond-encrusted setting has auction catalogues.2
recently come to light in a private collection in London The fragment shows a seated female figure, naked from the waist up,
(Fig.1). In form little more than a quarter of a circle, the her thighs covered by a garment. Her head is turned to her right (she
fragment is carved in a high-quality sardonyx of two seems almost to be looking behind her) and her raised right shoulder
colours, brown for the background and porcelain white suggests that her missing arm was elevated. In her left hand she holds a
for the figure. All three of its corners have at some date been rounded and thyrsus, which is balanced on her left knee; bands flutter from the thyrsus
the breaks have been straightened and smoothed, undoubtedly to make in somewhat stylised, regular S-shaped curves. A lock of her hair undulates
the fragment appear more complete in itself. Such work is characteristic above and behind her left shoulder, in the same S-shaped curves as the
of a pre-archaeological mindset, before fragments of antiquities were thyrsus bands. This iconography is well known, making identification of
fully appreciated in their own right and before scholarly interest the woman straightforward: she is Ariadne, found by Dionysus on the
had come to supersede the predominantly aesthetic appreciation of island of Naxos and swiftly made his consort. The seated posture and
ancient works of art. This paradigmatic shift dates from the first years semi-nakedness are characteristic of representations of Ariadne, whereas
of the nineteenth century, when the Parthenon sculptures arrived in maenads, the other females in the Dionysiac milieu, are generally dressed
Britain. In the world of gems, however, the modern appreciation of (if commonly dishevelled) and dancing in ecstasy.3
the appearance of antiquity is apparent slightly earlier; in general, by From its style the fragment can be dated to the mid- to late first century
the later eighteenth century, fragments of ancient gems and cameos BC and attributed to the gem carver Sostratos.4 Characteristic elements
were no longer being recut or smoothed at the edges. The treatment of work by Sostratos are the faces shown in three-quarters profile gazing
of the London fragment suggests, therefore, that it was above ground upwards and the frequent use of drilled pellet-like little dots, scattered in
by the eighteenth century. The setting dates from c.1860.1 Remarkably, particular across faces but also elsewhere, as in this case on the cone of
despite having clearly been in circulation for several centuries, the the thyrsus.5 The proportions of his figures are frequently idiosyncratic,
fragment has to the present author’s knowledge never been published, with their hands typically larger than is natural and their heads smaller,
The present author wishes to thank a same time as the setting. The setting is 3 See the entry on Ariadne by M.-L. Nachleben, Berlin 2007, pp.112–13 and
number of people who have facilitated his unmarked (as is the case) and difficult Bernhard and W.A. Daszewski in Lexicon 409–10; E. Prioux: ‘Poetic depictions of
work: the owners of the London fragment to place geographically, but it is not Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, ancient “Dactyliothecae”’, in M. Welling-
for allowing the examination and publica- Italian and probably French. Raymond Zürich, Munich and Düsseldorf 1981– ton Gahtan and D. Pegazzano, eds:
tion of the piece; Riccardo Gennaioli for Sancroft-Baker, former jewellery 2009, III.1 (1986), pp.1050–70 and III.2 Museum Archetypes and Collecting in
his Appendix on the collection history of specialist at Christie’s, London, who has (1986) pp.727–38. On the Mainades, see the Ancient World, Leiden 2015, pp.54–
the Florence fragment (translated from examined the fragment for the present I. Krauskopf, E. Simon and B. Simon in 71, at pp.58–65; and for a cameo showing
Italian by the present author); Mario Ioz- author, describes the setting as: ‘An ibid., VIII.1 (1997), pp.780–803 and VIII.2 Dionysus and Ariadne cavorting that is
zo, Director of the Museo Archeologico, antique oval cameo and rose-cut (1997), pp.524–50. clearly another example of his style and
Florence, for access to and assistance in diamond brooch, the central two-tone 4 For a list of Sostratos’ and associated work, see J. Boardman and C. Wagner:
examining the Medici fragment there; Pe- cameo fragment [. . .] surrounded by a works, see M.L. Vollenweider: Die Stein- Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved
ter Szuhay, London, for enabling the line of rose-cut diamonds and below two schneidekunst und ihre Künstler in Gems from Prehistory to the Present,
study published here; Raymond San- flowerheads, with diamond suspension spätrepublikanischer und augusteischer London 2018, p.222, no.207.
croft-Baker for help with assessing the loop, overall length 50 mm, width 26 Zeit, Baden-Baden 1966, pp.32–36; for 5 The face of Ariadne is clearly by the
setting of the London fragment; and mm, mounted in silver and gold, c.1860’. an overview, see J. Spier: Ancient Gems same hand as that of the dancing satyr
Richard Slater for many perspicacious 2 There is no reference to the and Finger Rings: Catalogue of the Col- on a cameo in the Museo Archeologico
comments and suggestions. fragment in the catalogues of the major lections: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Nazionale, Naples, see U. Pannuti: Museo
1 The fragment retains its fitted collections of ancient gems made during Angeles 1992, p.154; see also E. Zwier- Archeologco di Napoli: La Collezione Glit-
leather case, presumably made at the the last four centuries. lein-Diehl: Antike Gemmen und ihr tica, Naples 1994, II, pp.129–30, no.97.
GRADEL_Ariadne Cameo.indd 181 18/02/2020 18:40

A Sostratos cameo reconstructed
vogue for Dionysiac motifs, evident in gems carved by other workshops

of the period as well as in the imagery produced by the royal court in
Alexandria, stemmed from the general popularity of the cult of Dionysus,
without there necessarily being any direct link between Sostratos and
Alexandria. There were plenty of customers for such motifs other than
the queen of Egypt and her Roman consort. Sostratos may equally well
have worked in Rome throughout his career.
The London fragment must have been part of a cameo of considerable
size. It can be compared with a sardonyx fragment apparently depicting
the hindquarters of two horses that has been in the Medici collections
in Florence since at least 1635, and which was restored in the sixteenth
century by the addition of a gold relief (Fig.2). Despite its lamentably
incomplete state, this fragment is well known for two reasons: its technical
quality is superb; and it was supposedly restored by none other than
Benvenuto Cellini (see Appendix).7
Despite the apparent diversity of their subject-matter, these
fragments demonstrate equal technical mastery and unmistakable
stylistic similarities. The tails of what appear to be horses undulate in
exactly the same stylised S-shape as both Ariadne’s escaping lock of hair
and the thyrsus bands. This is an unusual mannerism, so the similarity
is unlikely to be coincidental. Furthermore, the animals’ hooves display
Sostratos’ characteristic pellet-like dots. Although the Florence fragment
has not before been attributed to Sostratos, his hand is unmistakable. It
has probably been overlooked due to two factors: horses’ hindquarters do
not permit stylistic analysis as easily as human bodies or anthropomorphic
faces; and the fragment is far larger than any of Sostratos’ known works,
which complicates a comparison with cameos by or attributed to him.
Nonetheless, the stylistic similarities are unequivocal.
On scrutiny, it is apparent that the restoration of the two rearing
animals as horses in the Florence fragment is mistaken. The genitals of
the male are of human rather than equine type, suggesting that these
are not horses but centaurs. The usual task of centaurs in cameos of the
period is to pull the chariot of Dionysus and/or Ariadne in triumphal
processions.8 In such representations, one centaur is typically male and
the other female. The idea was presumably that the love of the divine
couple permeates irresistibly down the hierarchy of nature and so is
reflected even in the centaurs’ intermediate level of half-man, half-beast.
In the mortal realm, on the other hand, pairing differently gendered –
and unneutered – draught animals is not a good idea, as they will tend
to distract one another; Graeco-Roman representations of pairs of horses
so engaged invariably depict them, sensibly and realistically, as belonging
1. Fragment of a cameo, by Sostratos. Hellenistic, mid- to late 1st
century BC. Sardonyx, 3.1 by 2.1 cm. excluding the later setting. to the same sex.
(Private collection, London). The Florence fragment can thus, even when viewed in isolation, be
identified as part of a Dionysiac procession that includes centaurs pulling a
as here. Sostratos’ shop specialised in Dionysiac motifs, as is evident from chariot. The London fragment with the seated Ariadne was part of the very
his signed and stylistically attributable cameos and cameo fragments. same cameo. This first appeared likely when scaled photographs of them
This predilection is so characteristic of his work that it has been argued were placed together (Fig.6) and was confirmed when the present author
that Sostratos worked for the court of Cleopatra and Mark Antony in placed the Florence fragment next to a cast of the London fragment. They
Alexandria, since the pair were known to stage Dionysiac performances share no common broken edges, for the relevant edge of the Florence
both in public and at court.6 It could be, however, that the contemporary fragment is covered, albeit only slightly, by the gold extension, and, as
6 Vollenweider, op. cit. (note 4), 8 For a recent overview on 10 State Hermitage Museum, at pp.62–63. It may therefore be by a
pp.32–36. Dionysiac processions in art, St Petersburg, inv. no.ж 282, see less skilful craftsman in the Sostratos
7 A. Giuliano: ‘I Cammei dalla Colle- see J. Boardman: The Triumph O. Neverov: Antique Cameos in the workshop or one related to it. For the
zione Medicea del Museo Archeologico of Dionysus: Convivial Processions, Hermitage Collection, Leningrad other cameo in the State Hermitage
di Firenze’, in M.E. Michell: Storia delle From Antiquity to the Present Day, 1971, p.84, no.42; and Vollenweider, Museum, inv. no.ж 309, see J. Kagan
collezioni e regesto, Florence 1989, Oxford 2014, esp. pp.22–26 for the op. cit. (note 4), p.35, no.100, pl.23,5 and O. Neverov, eds: exh. cat.
p.204, no.108; L. Tondo and F.M. Vanni: motif on ancient cameos. and 7. Although close to his work in Splendeurs des collections de
Le gemme dei Medici e dei Lorena nel 9 The cameo of a dancing satyr terms of theme and composition, Catherine II de Russie: Le Cabinet de
Museo Archeologico di Firenze, cited at note 5 is next in size: although the attribution of the cameo to pierres gravées du Duc d’Orléans,
Florence 1990, p.35, no.1, illustrated fragmentary, it would originally have Sostratos is not convincing, see Paris (Mairie du Ve arrondissement)
at p.53. been c.5.1 cm high and 2.9 cm wide. Prioux, op. cit. (note 4), pp.54–71, 2000, p.69, no.19/7.
182 THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 162 | MARCH 2020

mentioned above, the London fragment has had its edges smoothed down Since two fragments of a seriously incomplete cameo would not have
(to a considerable degree, as the gap between the two fragments as shown fetched twice the price of a single fragment, it can be speculated that it
in Fig.6 reveals). Nevertheless, it is clear that the fragments are an exact would have made commercial sense to sell the two fragments separately
fit, as Ariadne’s right leg and thyrsus staff align perfectly. Stylistically and following their discovery. The identification of the London fragment
technically the fragments are also a match. This could be because they raises the possibility that more fragments of the cameo may turn up. That
came from the same workshop and copied the same composition without would not, however, make a great difference to understanding the piece:
necessarily forming parts of the same cameo. However, another match, the with the discovery of the London fragment, the cameo’s subject can be
colouring of the sardonyx itself, clinches the issue: in the ground of the identified and its original appearance roughly reconstructed.
right edge of the Florence fragment there is a darker band of colour, which Whenever Ariadne is encountered brandishing a thyrsus, Dionysus
gradually lightens from right to left. This same darker ground appears is invariably close at hand. Her loving (or inebriated?) gaze in the London
on the matching edge of the London fragment (see Figs.3–5). Taken in fragment could well be taken to be directed towards her consort, and her
conjunction with the compositional and stylistic correspondences, this right arm could be wrapped around his shoulder. However, combining
confirms that the two fragments are part of the same cameo. Its original the two fragments reveals that Ariadne was placed at the front of her
outline cannot be precisely reconstructed, but presuming that its oval chariot, seemingly almost pressing on the centaurs’ hindquarters and
shape was more or less symmetrical across its vertical axis (but not across leaving insufficient space for two figures in the vehicle. Several versions
the horizontal one, as the distance from that axis to the top edge was of the Dionysiac procession show either Dionysus or Ariadne alone in a
greater than that to the lower edge), it would originally have been c.6.4 chariot. The single-figure versions usually favour Dionysus, but in two
centimetres wide by c.4.6 centimetres in height. This is unusually large cameos, both in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, it seems
for a Sostratos cameo; it is in fact the largest by him currently known.9 impossible to tell whether the charioteer is the wine god or his consort
Despite the lack of any provenance for the London fragment and the (Figs.9–10).10 In both cameos the figure is effeminate and seemingly has
different ways the two fragments have been treated, it seems most likely breasts, but the effete lifestyle of the god could result in such a physique
that they were discovered together some time in the sixteenth century. and such ambiguity of gender is not uncommon in ancient cameos with
Dionysiac motifs, where it is often – particularly when only a head and
2. Fragment of a cameo, by Sostratos. Hellenistic, mid- to late 1st
century BC. Sardonyx, width 5.5 cm maximum, excluding the later bust is shown – difficult to decide if the figure was intended for Dionysus,
restoration. (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence). Ariadne or a maenad. In any case, in the reconstructed cameo Ariadne

clear that they are travelling through the sky, but since no ground line is
shown that is probably what is intended, as in the complete Paris version.13
In the Florence fragment a thick ground line reveals that the centaurs are
earthbound. Their rearing motion requires a different explanation, which
can be supplied by another cameo fragment. This cameo, in Naples, is
of particular interest because it too was carved by Sostratos (Fig.7) and,
although much smaller than the London–Florence cameo, it represents
a similar subject. Sostratos’ style is unmistakable, pellets and all, and part
of his signature is preserved.14 Here again are two rearing centaurs, one
male and one female. The male centaur raises his right arm. This is a
conventional gesture of Dionysiac abandon,15 but in this case he may be
raising it in surprise, for, uniquely, this arm is being held down or pulled
back by a hand on his shoulder. This hand’s owner is not leaning on the
centaur for support, for this would mean that he or she was resting on one
wrist, an awkward means of seeking equilibrium; it would also not explain
the centaur’s pose. The most probable explanation is that the centaur rears
because he is being firmly pulled back by someone in the chariot. Whether
this is Dionysus or Ariadne cannot be established with certainty, but the
curvature of the fragment allows for an approximate reconstruction of its
original size and form (Fig.7), proving that it would have been impossible
for more than one figure to be squeezed into the available space.
There are, therefore, two cameos by the same carver with, it seems,
the same or a very similar motif (depending on whether the figure in the
chariot of the Naples cameo is Dionysus or Ariadne). This suggests that
a similar composition was employed for both cameos, albeit transposed
in mirror image; such reversal of single figures or entire compositions
was common in ancient glyptic works.16 In the absence of any other
known examples of this composition, it can be speculated that it may
well have been invented by Sostratos or his workshop. In any case, with the
appearance of the London fragment it may now be possible to reconstruct
the original composition of the Naples fragment. If Ariadne is not leaning
3. The cameo shown in Fig.2, photographed with transmitted light.

4. Reverse of the cameo shown in Fig.2.
5. Reverse of the cameo shown in Fig.1.
must have been alone in the chariot, and this raises the question of how
her right arm would have been positioned and for what reason. Without
anyone to lean on in the chariot, she would have needed another means
of support. Furthermore, the centaurs are clearly rearing, in a posture that
is often found in cameos representing drawn chariots, whether pulled by
centaurs or by horses. One of the most common motifs on cameos of the
first century BC is the figure of the winged Victory (Nike) or the wingless
Aurora (Eos) driving a chariot, usually a biga or two-horse chariot, pulled
by rearing horses.11 As the horses are imagined as moving through the air,
their posture is akin to swimming, as opposed to galloping or trotting
along the ground. This is also true of some of the pairs of centaurs pulling
a Dionysiac carriage. A cameo in Paris, for instance, shows a chariot with
Dionysus and Ariadne embracing, surrounded by cupids and pulled by
rearing centaurs high in the air, with representations of earthly deities
spread out on the ground below (Fig.8).12
The two Dionysiac cameos in the Hermitage and another example in
Florence (Fig.11) also depict rearing centaurs. In these instances it is less
11 Among the numerous instances no.79 with pl.IX.

of this motif and composition is a 13 Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
cameo in Naples, which is of particular Florence, inv. no.14457: Giuliano,
interest in this connection, because op. cit. (note 7), p.177, no.60. For
it is signed by Sostratos, see Pannuti, the Hermitage cameos, see note 10
op. cit. (note 5), pp.181–82, no.148. above. In the Hermitage cameo
12 E. Babelon: Catalogue des camées illustrated here (Fig.10), a ground line
antiques et modernes de la may originally have been present, as
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1897, most of the present background is a

6. Scans of the fragments shown in Figs.1 and 2 combined, showing a corresponding restoration of the Naples fragment would seem to leave
the outline of the original cameo, presuming an oval shape. The some space to the right, beneath the forelegs of the female centaur. If so,
resulting original size would have been approx. 6.4 by 4.6 cm.
parallels make it easy to suggest a restoration: a small Eros would have
7. Fragment of a cameo, with the roughly original outline of the
complete cameo restored, presuming a regular oval shape. led the procession.17 To make room for him, the centaurs were, therefore,
Hellenistic, mid- to late 1st century BC. Sardonyx, 2.6 by 2 cm. placed closer together and somewhat squeezed vertically in comparison
(Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples). to the London–Florence version, where the centaurs are elongated and
placed slightly further apart, so as to fill the available space and therefore
on Dionysus why is she leaning backwards? And why are the centaurs leaving no space for an additional figure.
rearing? A comparison of the London–Florence and the Naples cameos The use of a common compositional scheme for the two cameos,
suggests that the centaurs are rearing because the male in the foreground albeit reversed and varied in detail, was typical of both late Hellenistic
is being pulled to a halt by Ariadne, who is dragged backwards by his speed and Roman art. The same compositions, or single elements of them,
and strength. The opposing movements complement one another and were employed, adopted and readapted in glyptic works, sculpture and
create a dynamic composition; they are not merely mannered or theatrical paintings. Anyone familiar with gems of the first century BC will recognise
displays of contorted physical forms. these repeated motifs and compositions, of which the most studied
The original oval form of both cameos was similar but not identical, example is the figures of Diomedes and Odysseus that were often copied
as overlaying one on the other (with one reversed and matched in scale – individually or together – from a composition depicting their daring
with the other) reveals. On the London–Florence cameo Ariadne sits theft of the Palladium from besieged Troy.18
further forward than the corresponding figure in the Naples fragment An instance of such piecemeal compositional reuse can possibly be
whose arm is partially preserved; the centaurs are also placed more closely observed in one of the cameos in the Hermitage discussed above (Fig.10).
together in the Naples version. Assuming that the subject, although not The male centaur is shown rearing dramatically, his raised right arm
the exact composition, is identical on both cameos, the centaur urgently bent backwards like that of the male centaur on the Naples cameo. Yet
pulled back by Ariadne in the London–Florence version is substantially Ariadne (or possibly Dionysus) is seated placidly in the chariot, and there
more elongated than the one in the Naples fragment and, probably, his is no physical contact between her (or him) and the centaur. The rearing
upper body was not bent as far backwards. Despite the obvious similarities pose and dramatic arm gesture therefore seem unmotivated and too
between the centaurs’ hindquarters in both versions, one detail further exaggerated for a conventional display of Dionysiac exuberance. But the
reveals that they are not copies of a common model: on the London– detail can now perhaps be explained as a compositional relic: the centaur
Florence fragment a belt or strap (presumably part of a harness) is visible figure was copied from the composition recorded in the London–Florence
under the belly of the foreground centaur, whereas neither centaur in the and Naples cameos, in which Ariadne’s interception has forced the centaur
Naples version wears a harness. to rear up and fling out his arm.
Nonetheless, the notion of a common composition makes sense: It would be misleading to attempt a full reconstruction of the
the hand on the centaur’s shoulder neatly explains all the poses in London–Florence cameo, since many details of the composition have
both cameos. The same compositional scheme was therefore seemingly been lost. Although the overall scheme is recoverable, questions remain.
employed for both cameos, although with considerable variation in Why is Ariadne arresting the procession’s progress? Is this an illustration
detail. It seems likely that one such variation was dictated by the wish to of a lost episode in Dionysiac myth, or was her action introduced simply
include an additional figure on the Naples cameo: whereas two centaurs to inject some theatrical drama and movement to an otherwise rather
would perfectly fill the missing section of the London–Florence cameo, mundane composition?
modern restoration; the Florence Vollenweider, op. cit. (note 4), p.33. and 10) share the same composition, British Museum, London 1926,
version (Fig.11) appears unique in one Particularly characteristic of Sostratos albeit with variations in the gestures no.3462, pl.34, signed by Sostratos;
respect: both centaurs seem to be is the three-quarters face of the of the centaurs, and reversed. and for the full composition, see ibid.,
young males. further, young female centaur. 17 Babelon, op. cit. (note 12), no.3488, pl.34.
14 Pannuti, op. cit. (note 5), p.198, 15 Prioux, op. cit. (note 4), p.61 for no.79, pl.ix, and no.97, pl.xi; Vollen- 18 J.M. Moret: Les pierres gravées
no.166 (26.1 by 19.6 cm.); the convincing the gesture, common in scenes of weider, op. cit. (note 4), table 24.1–3; antiques représentant le rapt du
attribution to Sostratos on the basis of Dionysiac revelry. see also H.B. Walters: Catalogue Palladion, Mainz 1997; and Zwierlein-
the cameo’s style and signature – 16 For example, the two Hermitage of the Engraved Gems and Cameos Diehl, op. cit. (note 4), pl.105, fig.482
CΩ[CTPATOY] –was first advanced by cameos (see note 10 above and Figs.9 Greek Etruscan and Roman in the with references.
THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 162 | MARCH 2020 185

appendix 8. Triumph of Dionysus and Ariadne. Roman cameo in later setting.

Sardonyx, 6 by 5.5 cm. (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris).
The Florence cameo fragment and its history 9. Dionysus (or Ariadne?) in a chariot pulled by two centaurs. Roman
cameo in later, eighteenth-century setting. Sardonyx, 4.2 by 2.7 cm.
by Riccardo Gennaioli (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg).
10. Dionysus (or Ariadne?) in a chariot pulled by two centaurs. Roman
The restoration of the sardonyx cameo fragment in the Museo cameo in later, eighteenth-century setting. Sardonyx, 3.1 by 2.3 cm.
Archeologico Nazionale, Florence, is a refined example of the goldsmith’s (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg).
art, datable from its style to the sixteenth century (Fig.2).19 The gold 11. Dionysus and Ariadne in a chariot pulled by two centaurs. Roman
relief, made using the lost-wax technique, is not strictly speaking a cameo in later setting. Sardonyx, 3 by 2.5 cm. (Museo Archeologico
restoration, but rather an imaginative completion of the scene based Nazionale, Florence).
on the elements in the fragment. The two centaurs were turned into
dramatically rearing steeds, whose reins are firmly under the control of in refined interplays of light and shadow. The construction of the work
the chariot driver, reconstructed as a youth in antique dress. His pose, makes it difficult to deduce how the two parts have been joined. Along
with his head turned to his right while his body twists in the opposite the fracture line of the cameo, the metal appears to slightly overlay the
direction, is the result of the artist’s meticulous observation of the few stone; this is particularly evident in the area where the remains of the
remnants of the figure in the fragment, namely a right foot and calf, the left foreleg of the nearer, or uppermost, horse meets the gold. The back
delicately hanging edge of a garment and the base of what we now know of the metal is covered by a wax-like substance (Fig.4). On the reverse of
to be a thyrsus. Parts of the gold are chased in very high relief, resulting the restored cameo’s simple frame, little triangular teeth folded towards

the centre hold the composite pieces together. At top and bottom a small and the infant Hercules, also now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
ring is soldered to the frame. The mount is the same as those made for Florence.25 This work, however, differs significantly both in terms of the
other gems in the grand ducal collections in the seventeenth century quality of the workmanship and the technique employed in joining the
and early decades of the eighteenth. The rings enabled the stones to original to the restored parts.26 Lanzi concluded his brief commentary
be attached to velvet-covered wooden boards by means of silk ribbons. on these works with the observation that during the years of his service
In the late eighteenth century the piece acquired fame among to Cosimo I Cellini would have devoted himself to creating precious
antiquaries as a result of the restoration being connected with the settings for engraved gems.27
most famous Florentine goldsmith of the sixteenth century, Benvenuto It is well known that Cellini traded in ancient gems on a fairly
Cellini (1500–71). But although from 1545 Cellini was for some years in regular basis. For example, he records in his autobiography that he was
the service of Cosimo I de’ Medici, there is no reference in the surviving engaged in buying and selling antique cameos and intaglios during his
documentary sources to him undertaking the restoration. The cameo is stay in Rome around 1522–23. Among these he mentions an emerald
first recorded in 1635, the date of the earliest inventory of the Galleria dolphin head, a ‘beautiful topaz’ as big ‘as a large hazelnut’ with a head of
degli Uffizi, in which it is succinctly described with the other Medici Minerva ‘as finely done as can possibly be imagined’, and a cameo
gems. It was inside one of the small drawers (no. 7) of a monumental representing ‘Hercules tying up the three-headed Cerberus’, of ‘such
and luxurious cabinet in the niche of the Tribuna, the octagonal room beauty and done with such perfection that our great Michelagniolo
built for Francesco I de’ Medici by Bernardo Buontalenti: ‘Nine large [Michelangelo Buonarroti] had to say that he had never seen anything
sardonyx cameos of which one (is) half a plate of gold with horses and so wonderful’.28
eight with hoops of gold (placed) around and other without (gold Cellini’s familiarity with glyptic works is attested also by a document
hoop), marked above the box with number 7’.20 This description was in the archive of the Guardaroba Medicea. This is an inventory of the
repeated in an inventory of 1638.21 The cameo is next mentioned in precious objects that Cosimo I de’ Medici kept in the ‘Calliope Cabinet’
1676, in Luigi Strozzi’s Descrizione, o inventario di tutte le medaglie, cammei, (‘Scrittoio di Calliope’) in Palazzo Vecchio.29 It records the return by Cellini
intagli antichi e moderni, metalli antichi e moderni, statue, teste, iscrizioni on 8th November 1553 of eight small animal heads, three of which are
antiche che si ritrovano nella Galleria del Serenissimo Gran Duca Cosimo III described as ‘indiane’ (‘Indian’), in a variety of stones (amethyst, agate
in Firenze, which contains a section on ‘Cammei grandi antichi’ (‘Large and plasma), as well as of a carnelian cameo of a crab.30 Unfortunately,
ancient cameos’).22 In his systematic inventory of the gems compiled the inventory does not reveal why Duke Cosimo had consigned these
before 1736, Sebastiano Bianchi, head keeper (‘primo custode’) of the pieces to the artist.31
Gallery, mistakenly refers to the cameo as a ‘Fragment of a quadriga’ No evidence has yet come to light that Cellini was ever involved in
(‘Frammento di una quadriga’).23 In the early 1780s the cameo, with all the restoration work like that performed on the Florence cameo fragment,
other engraved gems in the grand ducal collection, was transferred to and Lanzi’s attribution of it to Cellini has not been discussed in any of
the new Cabinet of Gems of the Uffizi. Here it was recorded in terms the numerous studies dedicated to the sculptor.32 In a purely Florentine
of high praise by the Abbé Luigi Lanzi in his introduction to the new context, however, the suggestion has been repeated at various times by
arrangement of the Gallery, published in Giornale de’ Letterati in 1782.24 such writers as Tomasso Puccini (1799),33 Giovan Battista Zannoni (1824),34
The remarkable quality of the gold addition induced Lanzi to attribute Arcangelo Michele Migliarini (1837),35 and Luigi Adriano Milani in his 1912
it to Cellini, together with the restoration of a cameo depicting Athena guide to what was then Royal Archaeological Museum.36
19 See L. Lanzi: ‘La Reale Galleria di medicee, gloria dinastica’, in R. 24 Lanzi, op. cit. (note 19), p.108. 32 In particular, it is not mentioned
Firenze accresciuta e riordinata per Gennaioli, ed.: exh. cat. Pregio e 25 Museo Archeologico Nazionale, in E. Plon: Benvenuto Cellini: orfévre,
comando di S.A.S. l’Arciduca Granduca bellezza: Cammei e intagli dei Medici, Florence, inv. no.14537; see Micheli, médailleur, sculpteur, Paris 1883,
di Toscana’, Giornale de’ Letterati 47 Florence (Palazzo Pitti) 2010, p.232, op. cit. (note 7), p.138, no.4. which includes the most substantial
(1782), p.108; G.B. Zannoni: Reale no.108; R. Gennaioli, entry in M. 26 In the cameo with Athena and the catalogue of goldsmith’s work then
Galleria di Firenze illustrata, serie Sframeli: exh. cat. Trésor des Médicis, infant Hercules, the restorations have attributed to the artist; Camesasca,
V. Cammei ed intagli, 1824–31, I (1824), Paris (Musée Maillol) 2010, p.122, been made with thin gold foil that has op. cit. (note 28); J. Pope-Hennessy:
p.229, no.4, pl.28, 4; A. Giuliano, entry no.33; R. Gennaioli, entry in idem and been embossed and chiselled and then Cellini, London 1995; and M. Scalini:
in N. Dacos, A. Giuliano and U. Pannuti, M. Sframeli, eds: exh. cat. The Medici fastened to a slab of rock crystal Benvenuto Cellini, Florence 1995.
eds: exh. cat. Il tesoro di Lorenzo il Treasury, Moscow (Museum of the painted underneath with a dark colour 33 T. Puccini: Descrizione delle
Magnifico, Florence (Palazzo Medici Kremlin) 2011, pp.194–95, no.29; R. so as to match the bottom layer of gemme, pietre, e paste più cospicue
Riccardi) 1973, pp.44–45, no.7; Giuliano, Gennaioli, in idem and M. Sframeli, the stone fragment. che in opera di rilievo, e di cavo antica
op. cit. (note 7), p.117 and 204, no.108; eds: exh. cat. Gems of the Medici, 27 Lanzi, op. cit. (note 19), p.108. e moderna si conservano nella
L. Tondo, entry in idem and Vanni, op. Houston (Museum of Natural Science) 28 E. Camesasca, ed.: Tutta l’opera dattilioteca della R. Galleria di
cit. (note 7) p.35, no.1; L. Tondo: I and Santa Ana (Bowers Museum) del Cellini, Milan 1995, pp.140–41. Firenze, Biblioteca degli Uffizi,
cammei dei medici e dei Lorena nel 2012–13, p.62, no.21; and R. Gennaioli, 29 Archivio di Stato, Florence, Florence, MS 47 [1799], no. [P 1336]40.
Museo Archeologico di Firenze, in idem and M. Sframeli, eds: exh. cat. Guardaroba Medicea 28, c. 47r, and It is noteworthy that Cellini’s name
Florence 1996, p.99, no.1; idem in exh. Gemme e Gioielli dei Medici, Tokyo 37, c. 14r. does not appear in the catalogue of
cat. Magnificenza alla corte dei (Metropolitan Teien Art Museum) 30 Ibid., c. 47r. the gems compiled by Giuseppe Pelli
Medici, Florence (Palazzo Pitti) 1997, 2016, p.209, no.19. 31 Some of the pieces mentioned in Bencivenni in 1786, in which the cameo
84, no.45; E. Digiugno: La dattiloteca 20 ‘Nove cammei grandi di the 1553 inventory are still in Florence: fragment is noted as ‘supplito con
di Cosimo I de’ Medici, in D.L. corniola e sardoni che uno mezzo the ‘Indian’ animal heads have been eccellenza non vi essendo che la parte
Bemporad: Immagini Preziose in di piastra d’oro con cavalli e otto identified with three pre-Columbian di dietro dei Cavalli’, Biblioteca degli
Cornice. Cammei, Montature e con cerchietto d’oro intorno a l’altro pieces in the Museo di Mineralogia Uffizi, Florence, MS 115 [1786], I, part
Castoni del XVI Secolo a Firenze, senza, seg[na]to in su la cassetta dell’Università di Firenze and in the II, pl. XXV, no.1336.
Florence 2005, pp.7–79, at pp.45–46, n. 7’, Biblioteca degli Uffizi, MS 75 Tesoro dei Granduchi at Palazzo Pitti, 34 Zannoni, op. cit. (note 19), I (1824),
fig.40; P. Zanieri: ‘Le montature delle [1635], c. 71. see D. Heikamp: Mexico and the Medici, p.229, no.4.
gemme nella dattiloteca medicea del 21 Biblioteca degli Uffizi, MS 76 Florence 1972, 13f pp.13–14, plates 7–9; 35 A.M. Migliarini: Catalogo generale
Museo Archeologico di Firenze’, in [1638], c. 41. the carnelian crab can be identified della dattilioteca nell’I. e R. Galleria
Bemporad, op. cit. (above), p.95; M. 22 ‘Biga di cavalli con fig[ur]a integra with a fragmentary cameo in the delle statue a Firenze, Biblioteca del
Bietti, A. Giusti and M. Sframeli, eds: in oro. In cammeo’, Biblioteca degli stores of the Tesoro dei Granduchi, see Museo Archeologico di Firenze, MS
exh. cat. The Splendour of the Medici, Uffizi, MS 78 [1676], [Cammei antichi] R. Gennaioli: Le gemme dei Medici al 194 [1837], no.108.
Budapest (Museum of Fine Arts) 2008, Grandi, no.3. Museo degli Argenti. Cammei e intagli 36 L.A. Milani: Il Reale Museo
p.296, no.178; M. Sframeli: ‘“Leghato 23 Biblioteca degli Uffizi, MS 83 nelle collezioni di Palazzo Pitti, Archeologico di Firenze, Florence
in oro”: le montature delle gemme [ante 1736], pl.XXV, no.15. Florence 2007, p.342, no.447. 1912, vol.I, p.201.

A ‘David and Goliath’ by Artemisia
Gentileschi rediscovered
In 2018 a painting of David and Goliath previously known only from an old photograph came
to light at auction in Germany. It is here identified as one of the three recorded versions of the
subject by Artemisia Gentileschi and is dated to the late 1630s, when the artist was in London.
by gianni papi, with technical reports by tracey d. chaplin and simon gillespie
A
significant body of documentary and biographical 1. David with the head of Goliath, by Artemisia Gentileschi. c.1639.
evidence supports the existence of at least three Oil on canvas, 202 by 137 cm. (Private collection).
paintings of David and Goliath by Artemisia Gentileschi;
all must have been important works, to judge from the corresponding to significant staging points in Gentileschi’s career – Rome,
unequivocal praise of them in the documentary sources London, Naples. All three works seem to have been life-size: the Giustiniani
and the status of their early owners. An inventory drawn picture was c.200 by 140 centimetres, Sandrart described the one he saw as
up in Rome in 1638 on the death of the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani ‘Lebensgrösse’ (‘life-size’) and Pilkington referred to Gentileschi’s paintings
records a ‘painting on canvas with the full-length figure of David holding as containing ‘figures on large on life’.5 A feasible sequence can be proposed:
the head of the Giant Goliath, around nine by six-and-a-half palmi, by a first version painted in Rome for the Marchese Giustiniani, probably in
the hand of Artemisia Gentileschi, in frame’.1 In his Teutsche Academie, the years following Gentileschi’s return to Rome from Florence in 1620,
published in 1675, the painter Joachim von Sandrart recalled that when by when she was already well known;6 and subsequent second and third
he was in in Naples he had been shown various paintings by Gentileschi. versions, one painted for Charles I in the course of Gentileschi’s stay in
He singled out a ‘most beautiful depiction of David, at life-size, holding in Britain during the later 1630s, and the other for a Neapolitan collector
his hands the enormous and horrifying head of Goliath’.2 A third version during one of her two periods in Naples, from around 1629 until 1638, and
was mentioned by Matthew Pilkington, who in his biographical sketch then in the 1640s and 1650s.
of the painter, published in 1798, wrote that ‘the most celebrated picture The painting that is the subject of the present article (Fig.1) first
of her hand, is the Victory of David over Goliath’.3 This can probably came to light when it was sold at Sotheby’s in London in 1975; it was
be identified with a work mentioned no less enthusiastically by Horace attributed to Giovan Francesco Guerrieri (1589–1655) and illustrated with
Walpole, also writing towards the end of the eighteenth century: ‘King a black-and-white photograph (Fig.9).7 The description in the catalogue
Charles had several of her works. Her best was David with the head of gives only its measurements and a very summary indication of its colour
Goliath’.4 Walpole does not provide his source for this information and scheme, ‘David, in light brown’. In 1996, when the painting’s location
neither he nor Pilkington knew the location of the painting. was still unknown, the present author attributed the work to Gentileschi
It is possible that there were in fact only ever two versions of the on the basis of the only partly legible photograph and linked it with the
subject, since the painting recorded in the Giustiniani inventory in 1638 documentary evidence of her paintings of the subject, as discussed above.8
could have passed either into the anonymous Neapolitan collection Although it was challenging to reach conclusions on the basis of a black-
referred to by Sandrart or into that of Charles I. Nevertheless, it seems and-white image of a painting that was evidently dirty and difficult to
more plausible that the documents do in fact refer to three different read, especially in the areas at lower right, the work seemed characteristic
versions of the David and Goliath, the locations in which they are recorded of Gentileschi in its atmosphere and especially in the sinuous figure of
1 ‘quadro con una figura intiegra Mahlerey Künste [1675], ed. A.R. 6 For detailed accounts of this part Artemisia, Florence (Casa Buonar-
di David, che tiene la testa del Peltzer, Munich 1925, p.290. of the artist’s career, see E. Menzio: roti) and Rome (Complesso
Gigante Golia, dipinto in tela, alta 3 M. Pilkington: The Gentleman’s and Artemisia Gentileschi/Agostino Tassi. Monumentale di S. Michele a Ripa)
palmi 9 lar. 6 e – in circa di mano di Connoisseur’s Dictionary of Painters, Atti di un processo per stupro, Milan 1991, pp.38–43.
Artemisia Gentileschi con cornice’, London 1798, p.256. 1981; M.D. Garrard: Artemisia 7 Sale, Sotheby’s, London, Important
see S. Danesi Squarzina: La collezione 4 H. Walpole: Anecdotes of Painting Gentileschi, Princeton NJ 1989, Old Master Paintings, 9th July 1975,
Giustiniani. Inventari I, Turin 2003, in England with Some Account of pp.403–87; G. Papi: ‘Artemisia lot 45.
p.289. the Principal Artists [. . .], London Gentileschi (1593–1626): gli anni 8 G. Papi: ‘Un “David e Golia” di
2 See J. von Sandrart: Teutsche 1826–28, II, p.269. romani, il soggiorno fiorentino’, in Artemisia Gentileschi’, Nuovi Studi 1
Academie der Elden Bau-, Bild- und 5 Pilkington, op. cit. (note 3), p.256. R. Contini and G. Papi, eds: exh. cat. (1996), pp.157–60.
PAPI_Artemisia.indd 188 18/02/2020 17:40


A ‘David and Goliath’ by Artemisia Gentileschi
2. Detail of Birth of St John the Baptist, by Artemisia Gentileschi. that the work has been cleaned, its former rather shadowy atmosphere
1635–36. Oil on canvas, 184 by 258 cm. (Museo Nacional del has given way to its much more brilliant original colour scheme. It is now
Prado, Madrid).
possible to appreciate much better the brightness of the sky and the golden
3. Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting, by Artemisia Gentileschi.
1626–30. Oil on canvas, 93 by 74.5 cm. (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte ochre of David’s cloak draping his leg. This is a colour characteristic of
Antica in Palazzo Barberini, Rome) Gentileschi for which there are parallels with the sleeve of her Clio (1632;
Palazzo Blu, Pisa) and with the shawl that loosely drapes the shoulders of
David, whose expression projects the distinctive proud and cool virility the painter in the Self-portrait as the Allegory of painting (Fig.3), a figure with
we find in so many of Gentileschi’s heroines. He also recalls the long- much the same proud, defiant expression as that of David and the form
limbed protagonists of the artist’s mature works, in particular the various of whose hands is all but identical.
versions of Bathsheba. It is now possible to appreciate once more the refined nuances and
The attribution was largely ignored by other scholars. It was, subtle shifts of hue in the depiction of David’s white linen sleeves. The
however, rejected by R. Ward Bissell, who in his 1999 book on Gentileschi rendering of the folds of the fabric and of its translucent surfaces is very
illustrated the work with a generic attribution to a ‘Roman Master’ and similar to the depiction of the chemise worn by the serving woman in the
dated it c.1620.9 Drawing parallels with Carlo Saraceni as well as Guerrieri foreground of Gentileschi’s Birth of St John the Baptist in Madrid (Fig.2),
– neither of whom, in this author’s opinion, has anything to do with the the apron of the handmaiden with the mirror in the Bathsheba in the
painting – Bissell dismissed the attribution to Gentileschi on the grounds Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, and the sleeves of the nymph in Corisca
that the subject was presented ‘in a rather too cute manner that would be and the satyr (private collection). This fluidity in the painting of the whites
uncharacteristic of Artemisia’. The painting was also briefly mentioned can be traced back to Judith and maidservant with the head of Holofernes in
by Roberto Contini in the catalogue of the exhibition on Caravaggio and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, and Gentileschi’s contact with
the Giustiniani held in Rome and Berlin in 2001. He took no position Simon Vouet in Rome during the 1620s. The delicate passages of light
on the attribution and wondered whether the painting recorded in the on David’s face and on the part of his arm that rests on the sword are
Giustiniani inventory in 1638 could not perhaps be ‘something in the style strongly reminiscent of the treatment of the flesh areas in Esther before
of the picture formerly sold at Sotheby’s in London and recently published Ahasuerus, and the rather androgynous, clean-shaven faces of David
by Papi’ (‘qualcosa nel gusto della pittura già trascorsa presso Sotheby’s a Londra and Ahasuerus are also closely similar (Figs.5 and 6). Finally, the barren
e recentemente pubblicata dal Papi’).10 The 1996 article did not appear in the landscape setting at the left, with white clouds (much more luminous
bibliography of any subsequent exhibition dedicated to Gentileschi, with after restoration) scudding across a ragged sky, is closely comparable to
the exception of that held in Pisa in 2013, to which this article will return.11 the background of Corisca and the satyr.
In 2018 the painting re-emerged at auction in Munich, initially Confirmation of the painting’s autograph status emerged in the
attributed to a seventeenth-century painter of the school of Caravaggio.12 course of restoration with the discovery on the sword blade of Gentileschi’s
A few days before the sale, after the auctioneers had been made aware of signature, as well as a date that, unfortunately, is no longer legible (see
the 1996 article, the online catalogue entry was amended to an attribution Appendix 2). The restoration has revealed the high quality of the painting;
to Gentileschi. Soon after the sale, the painting’s new owner invited me to some problems in its state of conservation have been gently mitigated, but
study it and to observe its restoration in London by Simon Gillespie. Now not hidden. The painting’s autograph status may therefore be confirmed,
9 R. Ward Bissell: Artemisia Gentileschi Rome (Palazzo Giustiniani) and Berlin 13 For the autograph versions of 2007–08, pp.288–89, no.100.
and the Authority of Art, University (Altes Museum) 2001, p.66 Fetti’s David, see E. Safarik: Domenico 15 O. Millar: ‘The inventories and
Park, PA, 1999, pp.313–14, 11 R. Contini and F. Solinas, eds: exh. Fetti, Milan 1990, pp.44–47, no.7. valua-tions of the King’s goods 1649–
10 R. Contini: ‘Ritagli giustinianei’, in cat. Artemisia. La musa Clio e gli anni 14 L. Whitaker and M. Clayton: 1651’, Walpole Society 42 (1970–72), p.205.
S. Danesi Squarzina, ed.: exh. cat. napoletani, Pisa (Palazzo Blu) 2013. exh. cat. The Art of Italy in the Royal 16 G. Pagliarulo: ‘Artemisia. La Betsa-
Caravaggio e i Giustiniani. Toccar con 12 Sale, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, Collection: Renaissance and Baroque, bea di Gosford House’, Nuovi Studi 1
mano una collezione del Seicento, Munich, 6th December 2018, lot 598. London (Queen’s Gallery, London) (1996), pp.151–56.

but the question of which of the three documented versions of David

and Goliath it might be, and the related question of its date remains to
be resolved. As noted in 1996, the painting’s debt to Domenico Fetti’s
treatment of the subject is evident (Fig.4). Although Gentileschi’s David,
a brooding adult with a hint of a swagger, is distant both psychologically
and stylistically from Fetti’s somewhat chubby and still rather childlike
youth, his pose must surely be derived from Fetti.13 It is, however, difficult
to determine when and where Gentileschi might have seen Fetti’s
painting. One possibility is that she had seen a version in the British Royal
Collection.14 This may be identifiable with a David by Fetti that Charles
I owned, which was valued at £20 in the Commonwealth inventories.15
If Gentileschi first encountered Fetti’s composition in London, the
newly identified David and Goliath would be no earlier than the late
1630s, since she was in London from some time in 1638 until the early
months of 1640.
As discussed, most of the best stylistic parallels for David and Goliath
are with works by Gentileschi dating from the 1630s, such as Corisca and
the satyr, the Barberini Allegory of painting, the Prado Birth of the Baptist,
the Clio of 1632 and the various versions of Bathsheba, among which the
best was perhaps a painting that has been destroyed, formerly in the
Wemyss collection at Gosford House, East Lothian, Scotland (Fig.7).16
It is therefore proposed that this David and Goliath dates from the 1630s.
It cannot be identified with the version recorded in the collection of the
Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani – a collection that seems in any case
to have comprised only works painted in Rome – since that painting is
4. David with the head of Goliath, by Domenico Fetti. 1614–15.
Oil on canvas, 160 by 112 cm. (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden).
5. Detail of Fig.1, showing David’s face.
6. Detail of Esther before Ahasuerus, by Artemisia Gentileschi.
1627–28. Oil on canvas, 208.3 by 273.7 cm. (Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York).

7. Bathsheba, by Artemisia Gentileschi. 1635–40. Oil on canvas, he describes David as ‘holding in his hands the horrifying head of the giant
265 by 219 cm. (Formerly Gosford House, East Lothian). Goliath’ (‘des abscheuliche Haupt des ungheueren Goliaths in Händen hält’).17
8. Allegory of painting, by Artemisia Gentileschi. c.1639. Oil This leaves only the version recorded by Pilkington as the ‘Victory of
on canvas, 98.6 by 75.2 cm. (Hampton Court Palace, Royal Collection
Trust; © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020). David over Goliath’, and by Walpole as ‘David with the head of Goliath’.
In 1996 the present author tentatively proposed that the painting could
Opposite clockwise from top left most logically be identified with the work that had, according to Pilkington
9. Black-and-white photograph of Fig.1. 1975. (Courtesy Sotheby’s, and Walpole, once belonged to Charles I and was therefore painted during
London).
Gentileschi’s stay in London.18 Although the painting is not mentioned
10. X-radiograph of Fig.1. 2019. (Courtesy AAR and Simon Gillespie
Studio).
in the inventories of Charles’s collection, or in the records of the sale of
the collection after his death,19 comparison with the only painting by
11. Fig.1 shown before treatment. 2018.
Gentileschi that can be securely dated to her London period, the Allegory
12. Infra-red photograph of Fig.1. 2019. (Courtesy AAR and Simon
Gillespie Studio). of painting (Fig.8), confirms such a dating, even taking into account the
differences in condition between David and Goliath and the Allegory, which
described in the 1638 inventory as ‘David, who holds the head of the Giant is in a near-perfect state of conservation.20
Goliath’ (‘David, che tiene la testa del Gigante Golia’), whereas in the present One final point remains to be considered: the existence of a variant
painting Goliath’s head is placed on the ground in such a way that David of the newly identified painting that was attributed to Gentileschi in the
cannot in any sense be said to ‘hold’ it. The almost exact correspondence catalogue of the monographic exhibition held in Pisa in 2013.21 Then in
between the dimensions of the newly identified David and Goliath and a private collection, it was sold at auction in 2019 with an attribution to
that owned by Giustiniani can be explained simply by assuming that Gentileschi.22 The main difference between this painting, which measures
Gentileschi chose a standard size for her versions of this subject. Neither 203.5 by 152 centimetres, is that David holds the head of Goliath, propped
can the newly identified painting be that seen by Sandrart in Naples, since on a stone support. The present writer, having studied the painting when
17 Von Sandrart, op. cit. (note 2), p.290. Rome (Palazzo Braschi) 2016, pp.68–77. present. Infra-red reflectography might identifying-charles-i-painting,
18 The records of a painting of David 19 O. Millar: ‘Introduction’, in idem, ed.: allow us to see through the existing accessed 11th February.
by Artemisia Gentileschi in the ‘Abraham van der Doort’s catalogue of lining to the reverse of the original 20 For the Allegory of painting,
collection of Charles I have consistently the collections of Charles I’, Walpole lining, but this has not been carried out. see Whitaker and Clayton, op. cit.
been either ignored or overlooked. They Society 37 (1958–60), pp.xvii–xxii; and The brand may have been damaged or (note 14), pp.301–03, no.106.
are, for example, not mentioned in M.C. idem, op. cit. (note 15). The original removed during the process of lining, 21 See F. Solinas in idem and
Terzaghi: ‘Artemisia Gentileschi a canvas is lined on the reverse with a furthermore not all paintings in Charles Contini, op. cit. (note 11), pp.46–49.
Londra’, in F. Baldassari, ed.: exh. cat. supporting canvas, thus it is impossible I’s collection bear a brand, see https:// 22 Sale, Dorotheum, Vienna,
Artemisia Gentileschi e il suo tempo, to see whether Charles I’s brand is lostcollection.rct.uk/about-project/ 22nd October 2019, lot 56.


it was exhibited in Pisa, doubts that it is wholly autograph, since some

passages seem rather hard and dull. These doubts have not, however, been
shared by other scholars.23 In the opinion of Gillespie, who was able to
examine the work when it was on view before the sale in Vienna and make
a comparison with the newly identified painting:
the Dorotheum version appears to have been made with less subtle
layering and the application of paint is so precise that there is
actually a gap between certain areas, with almost no overlapping
of different colours. Regarding the ground, the London picture
has the dark brown chocolate preparation which is typical of
Artemisia Gentileschi, particularly during her Naples period, and
the ground of the Dorotheum picture is a slightly lighter brown-
grey. Both paintings have been painted on a typical seventeenth-
century Italian broad-weave canvas, resulting in the characteristic
square formations of cracks. There are openings between the limbs
13–16. Details of Fig.1, photographed in raking light to show the incisions
of David in our picture, emphasised with light on the limbs, and on (clockwise from top left) David’s heel; David’s left foot; David’s right
through which the colour of the landscape in the background is hand; and David’s neck. (Courtesy Simon Gillespie Studio).
visible – a very sophisticated means by which Artemisia has created
the effect of three-dimensionality. These openings and highlights tin was detected in the elemental analysis of this painting. Gentileschi is
are absent from the Dorotheum picture, with a resulting reduction also recorded as using extensive glazes in her works, applied particularly
in dimensionality. The skin tones are similar but the London over an initial lead white layer for draperies, with layering of pigments
version achieves a higher calibre of finish in the blending of colours such as smalt over red pigments to achieve purples (Figs.17–20).28 Further
and achieving a three-dimensional effect whereas the Dorotheum examination of these effects could be undertaken for the current painting,
picture lacks this higher finish and is therefore flatter.24 along with more in-depth analysis of her media, which it has been reported
included walnut oil and amber oil.29 Technical examination of her works
It is possible to conclude, therefore, that the newly identified David and has been somewhat limited to date, but the forthcoming exhibition of her
Goliath is not only Gentileschi’s original but that it can be recognised as, in work at the National Gallery, London, in 2020 is expected to provide a
the words of Walpole, the most beautiful of the paintings by her once owned greater wealth of information on her palette, technique and development.
by Charles I or even, in those of Pilkington, as her ‘most celebrated picture’.
2. Observations on ‘David and Goliath’ and the discoveries made

appendix during conservation, 2019.
By Simon Gillespie
1. Conclusions of a technical analysis of ‘David and Goliath’ carried
out at Simon Gillespie Studio, London, September 2019. Observation of the painting under raking light shows that the surface
By Tracey D. Chaplin texture retains thick oily brushstrokes that define the coloured spaces.
On careful inspection it is also evident that the design of the figure has
The paint layer structure of David and Goliath consists of a relatively thick been incised into the wet ground layer. These incisions have been carried
brown ground composed of earth pigments, to which a small amount of out freehand, with multiple incisions to rework or to emphasise certain
lead white may have been added. The paint layers were applied directly parts of the design, for example the figure’s right heel (Fig.13), right knee
over this typically as one or two layers, with glazes apparent for David’s and the area of the ruffled gaiter (Fig.14; see also Figs.15–16). This technique,
black sling and red laces. Oil was identified as the binding medium used by well-known to have been employed by Caravaggio, became widely used.
the artist (for the plinth). The palette established here for David and Goliath An X-radiograph was taken by Art Analysis and Research Ltd (Fig.10).
includes lead white, umber/sienna, red-brown-yellow ochre, Naples yellow, The information it provides is slightly limited due to the opacity of the
smalt and red (carmine) lake. Many of these pigments have been used by pigments used in the ground preparation, namely lead white. The image
artists since antiquity, but smalt was most commonly used during the shows the general good condition of the structure of the painting: there are
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries;25 Naples yellow, although found on no large damages, but there are two small tears in the upper-right corner,
paintings from the early sixteenth century, was not widely used until the as had been observed in visual inspection, and a branched tear in the upper
eighteenth century.26 Artemisia Gentileschi is known to have used dark, left, as well as a small damage in the head of Goliath.
iron oxide-rich earth grounds and a palette laden with earth pigments; she The X-radiograph reveals the artist’s changes in composition, most
is also reported to have used a yellow lead tin antimony pigment,27 but no noticeably in the folds in the white sleeve, where the artist had made
23 For example, the attribution to S. Barker, ed.: Artemisia in a Changing 24 Written communication with based yellow in the seventeenth
Gentileschi is accepted by J. Locker: Light, London and Turnhout 2017, the author, 14th November 2019. century’, Painting Techniques. History,
Artemisia Gentileschi. The Language of pp.193–95. In his entry for the picture 25 B. Mühlethaler and J. Thissen: Materials and Studio Practice
Painting, New Haven and London 2015, in the Pisa catalgue Solinas stated his ‘Smalt’, Artists’ Pigments 2 (1993), Contributions to the IIC Dublin
p.167; N. Spinosa: ‘Artemisia a Napoli’, in belief that the painting of David that pp.113–30. Congress, September 1998 (1998),
Baldassari, op. cit. (note 18), p.55; and is the subject of this article was a ‘less 26 I.N.M. Wainwright, J. Taylor and pp.160–65; and N. Eastaugh et al.:
R. Lattuada: ‘Unknown paintings by vibrant and more solid derivation’ R.D. Harley: ‘Lead antimonate yellow’, Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary
Artemisia in Naples, and new points (‘derivazione meno vibrante e più Artists’ Pigments 1 (1986), pp.219–54. of Historical Pigments, Oxford 2004.
regarding her daily life and bottega’, in ferma’), see Solinas, op. cit. (note 21). 27 A. Roy and B. Berrie: ‘A new lead- 28 K. Christiansen: ‘Becoming

an initial composition with the folds travelling downwards to the right,

whereas in the final image the folds travel downwards to the left. The
X-radiograph also shows that a reserve was left in the painted sky and
the sword was painted in subsequently. The elaborate pommel and guard
extend over the clouds, whereas the blade is mostly over the unpainted
reserve in the sky. The incision lines are not readily apparent, except in
small areas, such as the outside of David’s left foot.
An infra-red photograph was taken by Art Analysis and Research Ltd
(Fig.12). This did not detect any carbon underdrawing. It does, however,
confirm the pentimenti in the sleeve and it shows a possible reserve or
dark paint under the left upper arm, perhaps indicating a larger arm hole
in the waistcoat. Some of the incision lines can be seen, for example the
gaiter of the lower leg. The damages observed under X-radiography are also
visible. Some of the letters of the signature on the blade of the sword are
visible, and the outline of the sword in this area is very precise. There is an
unexplained aura around David’s head, suggesting that a layer of opaque
paint lies beneath the visible paint film, possibly highlights on the curls of
an earlier layer of the head of hair.
The picture is structurally sound and it was thought unnecessary to
reline it. The existing lining is most probably a traditional paste lining
with wax added. The lining had been applied most probably because of
the three holes in the upper part of the painting and to hold down the
system of cracks. Both of these elements had been successfully resolved
by the lining. However, the lining process has resulted in some of the
thicker brushstrokes being flattened. A faint stretcher bar mark is visible,
approximately three to four centimetres from the edges, left by an original
stretcher. The current stretcher was likely applied when the picture was
relined, and is broader.
Surface dirt was removed from the existing varnishes (Fig.11). Extensive 21. Artemisia Gentileschi’s signature as it was discovered during
cleaning. (Courtesy Simon Gillespie Studio).
tests were carried out to remove the varnish and secondly the remains of
22. Detail of a false colour rendering of Fig.1, showing Artemisia’s
older varnishes; this was carried out using an ethanol gel, cleared with signature on David’s sword. (Courtesy Simon Gillespie Studio).
ethanol and Shellsol D40 in ratio 1:1. The removal of the tougher and 23. Detail of an infra-red photograph of Fig.1, showing Artemisia’s
thicker overpaint was made using a polyurethane gel, also cleared with 1:1. signature on David’s sword. (Courtesy AAR and Simon Gillespie Studio).
During cleaning, the delicate remains of the artist’s signature and a
date were found (Figs.21–23). Unfortunately, the last two digits of the date quality of care in blending colours in the skin tones was notable, creating
are illegible. The inscription reads ‘Artemisia’, below which the letters ‘Fe’ three dimensions with the musculature. Also notable was the enhancing of
can be made out, followed by illegible characters and then the digits ‘16’, three-dimensional space in the composition by leaving openings between
presumably reading ‘Fecit 16 [–]’. the limbs of David, emphasised by reflected light on their lower and upper
After cleaning, it was interesting to see the artist’s thickly applied surfaces. It was also interesting to see how the artist made the purple colour
paint, which naturally defined areas of colour, in some areas leaving of the waistcoat by blending blue smalt and the carmine lake directly
pronounced impasto, for example the drapery across David’s lap. The onto the picture. The technique is now evident, as the highlighted area
blended with white has become more exposed as a result of ageing and the
17–20. Cross-section of a paint sample from David’s waistcoat
photographed at x200 magnification, fragmented into an upper part, transparency of the blended blue smalt and carmine lake.
showing evidence of red lake, angular blue/grey smalt, lead white and Retouching varnish and retouching was carried out using Laropal
ochre, shown in reflected white light (top left); and UV light (top right); A81. Some areas of ground layer had become exposed through natural
and a lower part, showing evidence of blue smalt grains from the
overlying paint layer, shown in reflected white light (bottom left); transparency due to the ageing of the paint, but there were also small
and UV light (bottom right). (Courtesy Tracey D. Chaplin). areas that showed signs of slight abrasion. A decision was taken to reduce
the impact of the visible dark ground by reintegrating these areas to
an acceptable level. A final layer of semi-matte protective Dammar
varnish was applied. In my opinion, this David and Goliath exemplifies
the techniques that Artemisia Gentileschi used to produce her highest
calibre of works.
Artemisia: afterthoughts on the Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language

Gentileschi exhibition’, Metropolitan of Painting, New Haven and London
Museum Journal 39 (2004) pp.101–21; 2015, p.236.
M. Moss: ‘Distraught young mother 29 T. De Mayerne: Pictoria, sculptoria
breastfeeds her infant – Artemisia et quae subalternarum artium (the
Gentileschi, 1593–1653’ (unpublished ‘Mayerne manuscript’), British Museum,
article 2004), pp.1–12, available at London, Sloane MS 2052, fol.19, transl.
academia.edu/31048895, accessed 11th in C.L. Eastlake: Materials for a History
February 2020; and J. Locker: of Oil Painting, London 1847.

VALE_Valadier.indd 196 18/02/2020 18:06
A Portuguese bishop’s pontifical
mass service by Luigi Valadier
A gilt silver pontifical mass service belonging to the cathedral of Portalegre, Portugal, is here
identified as the work of the celebrated Roman silversmith Luigi Valadier and dated 1769–71.
It is closely similar to a contemporary service owned by Cardinal Domenico Orsini and both
services can be linked to a group of drawings from Valadier’s workshop.
by teresa leonor m. vale
W
hile compiling an inventory for a planned 1. Pyx, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver, 21.7 by 11 cm. (Church
museum for the cathedral at Portalegre in of S. Miguel, Castelo Branco; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco).
eastern Portugal in 2018, the present author
examined an unpublished pontifical mass altar set comprises a cross and seven candlesticks, instead of the usual six,
service.1 Examination revealed a hallmark and the three altar canons (texts to prompt the priest). As in any mass,
for Rome, the bollo camerale of the Reverenda a censer is also needed for the purification of the altar, together with a
Camera Apostolica, which provided a date of manufacture of 1769–71, chalice, pyx, ewer and basin, a pair of cruets and a pax. Apart from the
together with a maker’s mark for Luigi Valadier (1726–85), the outstanding chalice, all these pieces are found in the Portalegre service. They differ
Roman silversmith of the eighteenth century.2 The service now consists from those used for an everyday mass only in their high artistic quality.
of eighteen silver-gilt chiselled pieces, but it is incomplete because the In the event that a solemn mass was to be performed by a cardinal or a
chalice is untraced. The existing pieces are a pyx (Fig.1),3 a ewer and basin bishop – and especially if it was not to take place in a cathedral – there
(Figs.2 and 3), a pair of cruets and its tray (Fig.8), a holy water bucket and could be no expectation that outstanding pieces would be available, so it
its aspergillum or sprinkler (Fig.5), four round dishes (Fig.10), two oval was the usual practice for the celebrant to bring his own service.
trays (Fig.4), a bell (Fig.7), a pax (Fig.9) and wick-trimmers and a candle- The other objects in the Portalegre service are a bucket for holy
holder (Fig.6). These are accompanied by two small ampules for the holy water and its aspergillum, a bell, four round dishes and two oval trays,
oils and a box for unconsecrated wafers, but it is not certain that they are together with a candle-holder and its snuffers. The bucket is used at the
part of the original set as they are greatly inferior in quality. beginning of the mass for the purification of those assembled and the
Pontifical high mass, also called a solemn pontifical mass, is a mass bell is for calling their attention to a particularly important moment, the
performed by a bishop using ceremonies set out for the Roman Catholic consecration. The dishes and trays may have been used at communion,
church in the Caeremoniale episcoporum promulgated by Clement VIII on to prevent a consecrated host or part of it from falling to the floor, or for
14th July 1600 in the bull Cum novissime. The Caeremoniale episcoporum, collecting the towel that was used to wipe the hands of the celebrant.
which went through several subsequent editions, is supplemented by other They could also simply be for ostentation – ad pompam et ostentationem
Catholic handbooks, such as the Breviary, the Missal, the Martyrology, – and as such were displayed at the sides of the altar in ceremonies of
the Pontifical and the Rituale Romanum.4 Although in modern English especial solemnity. The candle-holder confirms the identification of
the term ‘pontifical’ is often associated with the Pope, any bishop may the set as a pontifical mass service because it is used only for such a
properly be called a pontiff. Thus the celebrant of a pontifical high mass celebration.5 It is placed on the altar to the left of the Missal for the use
may be any cardinal or bishop or even an ‘inferior prelate’, such as an abbot of those who have this privilege, such as cardinals and bishops, during the
or apostolic protonotary. For a pontifical mass – or any solemn mass – the reading of the Gospel.6
I would like to thank Jennifer Montagu Distrito de Portalegre, Lisbon 1942, (2013), pp.384–89; and idem: Ourives- caratteri e peculiarità’, available at
for reading a draft of this article and pls.157–58, and has seemingly never aria Barroca Italiana em Portugal, www.collegiumdivimarci.org, accessed
discussing it with me. I also thank Tiago been studied in detail. Lisbon 2016. For the Valadier workshop, 11th February 2020, see bibliography,
Henriques, Diogo Gaspar, Paulo Mota 2 See T.L.M. Vale: ‘Eighteenth-century see idem, ed.: The Art of the Valadiers, esp. note 1.
Duarte and Canon Bonifácio Bernardo Roman silver for the chapel of St John Turin 2017. 5 The candle-holder is absent from
for help with access to the service. the Baptist of the church of S. Roque, 3 The pyx is in S. Miguel, Castelo the Orsini service discussed below.
1 The service was hitherto known only Lisbon’, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 152 Branco, but its transfer to the future 6 On the use of the candle-holder,
from two small black-and-white (2010), pp.528–35; idem: ‘Roman museum in Portalegre cathedral see G. Moroni: Dizionario di Erudizione
photographs published in L. Keil: Baroque silver for the Patriarchate of is planned. Storico-Ecclesiastica da S. Pietro sino
Inventário Artístico de Portugal. Lisbon’, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 155 4 See F. Tolloi: ‘La messa pontificale, ai nostri giorni, Venice 1851, LI, p.72.

A pontifical mass service by Luigi Valadier
2. Ewer, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver, 26.1 by 8 cm. (Cathedral

of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco).
3. Basin, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver, diameter 39.2 cm.
(Cathedral of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco).
The presence of such an exquisite set in a small town in Portugal’s

interior, obtained from Rome during the reign of Joseph I (reg.1750–77), is
puzzling for several reasons. The King did not enjoy the flow of Brazilian gold
and diamonds that had enriched his father, John V, and his financial reserves
were seriously depleted by the huge cost of the lengthy reconstruction that
followed the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Moreover, between
1760 and 1770 diplomatic relations between Portugal and the Holy See were
disrupted, the result of a number of factors, including the expulsion of the
Jesuits from Portugal in 1759, which prevented the confirmation of bishops,
although Joseph I continued to nominate them for dioceses.
It was not until after 1769–71 that prelates were appointed to the
diocese who might have had an interest in possessing such objects, Pedro
de Melo da Silveira e Alvim (1730–77) and his successor, Manuel Tavares
Coutinho da Silva (1724–98). Neither is well known.7 Pedro de Melo was
born to a noble family in the diocese of Coimbra. His appointment as
bishop of Portalegre by Joseph I in November 1772 was confirmed by
the Pope in July 1773. He made his public entrance in Portalegre in late
March 1774 and remained there until his death in 1777. Before becoming a
bishop, Manuel Tavares was a friar in the Order of Santiago and had been
a teacher and dean at the College of the Military Orders of the University
of Coimbra. He also served as a deputy of the Inquisition and a canon of
Guarda Cathedral. He was appointed Bishop of Portalegre by Mary I in
May 1778 and was confirmed by the Pope in July. He made his solemn
entrance into the diocese in November 1778.
Both Pedro de Melo and Manuel Tavares were committed to their
work as bishops, most notably as it concerned buildings. The former
promoted the conclusion of works (ongoing since the reign of John V)
on the Bonfim Church and renewed the cathedral’s cloisters. The latter
oversaw the restoration of the main façade of the cathedral and its apse,
and built a new chapel (dedicated to St James) in the cloisters, where some
years later he was buried. He also extended the episcopal palace and built
accommodation for the administration of the diocese. His keen interest
in enriching the cathedral and equipping it with objects for the complex
liturgical and ceremonial life of the time led Manuel Tavares to acquire
vestments and several silver-gilt pieces (a monstrance, a chalice, a pyx and
an altar cross), most of which were made in Lisbon.8 But nothing seems to
link either prelate directly with Italy, still less with the Valadier workshop,
although Pedro de Melo is known to have owned at least one book on Italian
literature and antiquities, Excursus litterarii per Italiam ab anno MDCCXLII.
ad annum MDCCLII, by the Jesuit theologian, archaeologist and historian
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, published in Venice in 1754.9
7 For further biographical information Calissoni: Argentieri, Gemmari e

on the bishops of Portalegre, see F. Orafi di Roma, Rome 1987, p.429.
Ameida: História da Igreja em 11 Ibid., p.45; I thank Anna Bulgari
Portugal, Oporto 1970, III, p.574. Calissoni for her generosity in sharing
8 For example, the altar cross, her immense knowledge of Roman
diocesan collection, Portalegre silversmiths’ marks and confirming
Cathedral, inv. no.DPCB.4.15.01.05259, the identification of those on this set.
bears the Lisbon hallmark for 1750–70 12 See, for example, A. González-
and the silversmith José António Palacios, ed.: L’Oro di Valadier. Un
Viera (active 1750–1820). genio nella Roma del Settecento,
9 The Bishop’s copy, identifiable by his Rome 1997; idem: Arredi e Ornamenti
coat of arms on the binding, was sold alla Corte di Roma 1560–1795, Milan
at Cabral Moncada Leilões, Lisbon, 2004, esp. pp.313–426; and idem: exh.
Antiques and works of art (109), cat. Luigi Valadier, New York (Frick
28th–29th September 2009, lot 193. Collection) 2018.
10 It is mark no.1055 in C. Bulgari: 13 F. Di Castro: Via Margutta.
Argentieri, Gemmari e Orafi d’Italia, Cinquecento anni di storia e d’arte,
Rome 1959, II, p.495; see also A. Bulgari Rome 2006, p.46.

The Portalegre service, which was made before Pedro de Melo’s

appointment as bishop in 1772, was at some point in Manuel Tavares’s
care, as he was portrayed with what appears to be its bell by his side in a
portrait now in the Bishop’s Palace (Fig.14). It is likely that one or other
of these bishops acquired rather than commissioned the set from one
of the dealers in Rome who were able to obtain items from the Valadier
workshop for foreign clients. This idea is supported by the fact that none
of the pieces of the Portalegre service has a coat of arms engraved on it
and there is no indication that arms have been erased. The service may
have been purchased by a dealer or agent in Rome prior to a buyer coming
forward, and so the engraving of the coat of arms would have been left
for a later date.
As with other mass sets, marks are not found on every piece.
Valadier’s appears only on the holy water bucket (Fig.11) and the candle-
holder, although on the latter it is much damaged.10 The bollo camerale
No.132, which corresponds to the period 1769–71,11 is identifiable on the
basin (Fig.12), the tray for the pair of cruets, all four round dishes, both oval
trays and the candle-holder. Taken together, these marks confirm that the
Portalegre service was made in Rome in Valadier’s workshop and received
4. Oval tray (one of a pair), by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver, diameter
29 cm. (Cathedral of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco).
the mark of the Reverenda Camera Apostolica between 1769 and 1771.
Valadier’s career is well understood, thanks in particular to research
Below clockwise from left by Alvar González-Palacios.12 After the death in 1759 of his father, the
5. Holy water bucket and aspergillum, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt
silver, bucket 12.4 by 14.4 cm.; aspergillum length 17.3 cm. (Cathedral French silversmith Andrea Valadier, who had established himself in
of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco). Rome in 1714, Valadier obtained his silversmith’s licence on 24th February
6. Wick trimmers and candle-holder, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt 1760. He continued his father’s work, initially in partnership with his
silver, silver, trimmers 17.5 by 4.6 cm.; holder 32.3 by 13.5 cm. (Cathedral brother Giovanni (1732–1805), but they separated in 1762. Luigi Valadier,
his wife, Caterina (a daughter of the Florentine sculptor Filippo della
7. Bell, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver, 12.5 by 6 cm. (Cathedral
Valle), and their children moved from the area in which the family had
lived and worked since 1714, near S. Luigi dei Francesi, to a house in the
8. Pair of cruets and tray, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver,
each cruet 17.3 by 8.50 cm., diameter of tray 24.4 cm. (Cathedral Strada Paolina (now via del Babuino), on the corner with the Vicolo del
of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco). Carciofolo.13 The street, like many in its immediate vicinity, was home to

Left 9. Pax, by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt silver, 18.1 by 14.5 cm.
(Cathedral of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco).
Above 10. Round dish (one of four), by Luigi Valadier. 1769–71. Gilt
silver, diameter 25 cm. (Cathedral of Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-
Castelo Branco).
11. Detail of Fig.5, showing Luigi Valadier’s mark. (© Diocese Portalegre-
Castelo Branco).
12. Detail of Fig.3, showing the Reverenda Camera Apostolica’s mark
(‘bollo camerale’).
the workshops of a variety of artists and craftsmen, from sculptors and During the time he received these commissions he made a solemn
painters to silversmiths, which may have influenced Valadier’s decision mass service for Cardinal Domenico Amedeo Orsini d’Aragona (1719–89),
to move there. now in the cathedral at Muro Lucano, which is of particular interest for
In the 1760s, when Valadier became a member of the Compagnia dei the study of the service in Portalegre, since the sets are close in typological
Virtuosi (in 1765) and served as Fourth Consul of the Roman silversmiths’ and decorative terms as well as in date. The Orsini service (Fig.13), identified
guild (1766–69), he regularly made pieces for the Borghese, including in 1994 by Renato Ruotolo,21 has been extensively studied by González-
the bronze decorations for the altar in the family chapel in S. Maria Palacios.22 Initially believed to have been made c.1779 or 1774–75,23 it has more
Maggiore,14 as well as lamps and other pieces intended for liturgical use. recently been dated to c.1768–69.24 Given that the dates that correspond
He also worked on items for the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in S. to the hallmarks of the Portalegre pieces are 1769–71, the two sets could be
Giovanni in Laterano, which was under Borghese patronage.15 In the years almost contemporary.
that followed he worked for the usual ecclesiastical clientele of Rome,16 for González-Palacios has pointed out that Domenico Orsini was not
such aristocratic families as the Chigi,17 and increasingly for customers a priest, merely a cardinal deacon, which means that he was unable to
throughout Europe (there are, for example, numerous examples of his work celebrate mass. What use, therefore, would he have had for such a set? In
in Britain) and beyond, including Mexico. The second half of the 1760s the present author’s opinion, the Orsini set was never used, which helps
and the entirety of the 1770s were the Valadier workshop’s most prolific to explain its pristine condition, enhanced by its gilding being retouched
period. The years 1768–75 included a major commission for the high altar c.1781, as documented in an invoice from Valadier recently discovered by
of Monreale Cathedral: the altar ledge (or gradine), which was unveiled Alessandro Agresti.25 By contrast, the Portalegre set has been used, and since
in Rome in September 1768,18 two side panels (1769), a frontal (1770) and, it has not been kept in ideal conditions the pieces lack the immaculate
finally, six statues of saints, completed over the course of 1775.19 In 1769 appearance of the Orsini set, although in other ways the services are very
he made a casket for the remains of St Camillus de Lellis for the altar similar. Their components almost all match in size (the variation is never
dedicated to the saint in S. Maria Maddalena, Rome.20 more than two centimetres), share the same shapes and, most significantly,
14 See Registro Generale di tutti Chracas: Diario Ordinario, no.6972

li Lavori Ferriordegni e d’altri generi (13th March 1762), p.8.
necessari per le professioni di 17 The earliest payment for work
argentiere, doratore, e fonditore di carried out by Luigi Valadier for the
qualunque genere varie pietre dure Chigi dates from 19th June 1765,
e tenere lavorate e grezze nel negozio Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Archivio
del Signore Giuseppe Valadier Chigi, fols.1176 ff.; see González-Palacios
nell’anno MDCCCX, Frick Collection 1997, op. cit. (note 12), p.21.
Art Reference Library, New York, 18 L.A. Chracas: Diario Ordinario,
published in Vale 2017, op. cit. (note no.7989 (17th September 1768), pp.3–4.
2), pp.237, 252 and 325. 19 J. Winter: ‘Luigi Valadier and
15 Bills for work carried out for the Monreale’, Antologia di Belle Arti 34–42
Borghese are in the Borghese archive (1991–92), pp.89–96; some models for
and are cited in González-Palacios 1997, parts of the altar remained in the
op. cit. (note 12), p.20; idem 2004, op. workshop in 1810, see Registro Gener-
cit. (note 12), pp.353–54); and idem ale, op. cit. (note 14), pp.189 and 319.
2018, op. cit. (note 12), p.120. 20 L.A. Chracas: Diario Ordinario,
16 For example, a monstrance for SS no.8124 (6th January 1770), pp.17–18.
Domenico e Sisto, as recorded in L.A. 21 See S. Abita, ed.: exh. cat. Argenti in

are very similar in their decoration, both in their ornamental repertory 13. Pontifical mass service, by Luigi Valadier. 1768–69. Gilt silver.
(grapes and ears of wheat, for obvious symbolic reasons, together with (Cathedral of S. Nicola, Muro Lucano; photograph The Frick
Collection, New York).
undulating ribbons and ties) and in the way in which those elements are
14. Detail of D. Frei Manuel Tavares Coutinho e Silva, seventeenth
placed on the pieces. bishop of Portalegre. Eighteenth century. Oil on canvas, whole painting
Two groups of related drawings are important to a comparison between 107.5 by 84 cm. (Episcopal Palace, Portalegre; © Diocese Portalegre-
the two services. The first is in an album in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Castelo Branco).
Faenza,26 which contains a drawing of a bell inscribed ‘Luigi Valadier in Roma
1779’. This has recently been associated with a gold liturgical set (a chalice been established, the drawings can be connected to both sets, although
and paten, a pair of cruets with a tray, and a spoon and bell) commissioned those drawings that include the arms of the Orsini (see Fig.15, for instance)
in 1778 by the bishop of the Spanish city of Lleida, Joaquin Antonio Sánchez are obviously directly related to the Orsini service.31 It seems likely that most
Ferragudo (d.1783), which disappeared in 1810.27 Two other drawings in the of the drawings were made for that service, but that they were subsequently
album can also be associated with this set.28 One depicts a round dish (or used for the Portalegre set and perhaps for other pieces too. The signed and
basin) and the other an oval tray (Figs.15 and 16). dated drawing of the bell for the Lleida service is identical to the bell in the
The second group consists of two drawings formerly at New Wardour Orsini service, and both the Orsini and Portalegre services have decoration
Castle, Wiltshire, one depicting cruets (Fig.20) and the other a pair of cruets
and its tray (Fig.17), and two drawings in private collections, one of a ewer
and basin (or possibly a cruet and tray; Fig.19), the other a holy water bucket
(Fig.18). With the exception of the New Wardour drawing of the pair of
cruets without a tray,29 all have been associated with the Orsini service.30 But
now that the existence of at least two pontifical mass services by Valadier
featuring a closely similar repertory of forms and decorative elements has
Basilicata, Matera (Palazzo Lanfranchi) Splendore nella Roma del Settecento,

1994, pp.58–61. Rome (Borghese Gallery) 2019, pp.81–183.
22 González-Palacios 1997, op. cit. (note 27 See I. Puig, J. Yeguas: ‘L’Obra de
12), pp.142–47; A. González-Palacios, E.P. Luigi Valadier a Lleida’, in B. Bassegoda,
Bowron and J.J.J. Rishel, eds: exh. cat. J. Garriga and J. París, eds: L’Època del
Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Barroc I els Bonifàs, Barcelona 2007,
Philadelphia (Museum of Art) 2000, pp.135–56.
p.189; González-Palacios 2004, op. cit. 28 It was published in association with
(note 12), pp.360–61; and idem 2018, op. the Orsini service in González-Palacios
cit. (note 12), pp.336–46. 2004, op. cit. (note 12), p.364.
23 González-Palacios 1997, op. cit. (note 29 The drawing is mentioned without
12), p.142; González-Palacios, Bowron and being linked to the Orisini set in ibid., p.360.
Rishel, op. cit. (note 22), p.189; González- 30 See González-Palacios 1997, op. cit.
Palacios 2004, op. cit. (note 12), p.360. (note 12), p.147; and idem 2004, op. cit.
24 See González-Palacios 2018, op. cit. (note 12), pp.361–64.
(note 12), p.345. 31 The coat of arms on the Orsini
25 Ibid. service is not the personal arms of
26 The album is published by Francesco Cardinal Domenico Orsini, but that of
Leone in G. Leardi, ed.: exh. cat. Valadier his family with the galero and tassels.


Opposite clockwise from top left

15. A round dish or basin, by Luigi Valadier. Brown ink on paper, 42.5 by 45
cm. (Pinacoteca di Faenza).
16. An oval tray, by Luigi Valadier. Brown ink on paper, 24 by 34.5 cm.
(Pinacoteca di Faenza).
17. A pair of cruets and a tray, by Luigi Valadier. Brown ink on paper, 34.8
by 28.8 cm. (Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, Chippenham, 2667/18/16).
18. A holy water bucket, by Luigi Valadier. Pencil and brown ink on paper.
(Private collection).
19. Ewer and basin, or cruet and tray, by Luigi Valadier. Black and brown
ink on paper. (Private collection).
20. A pair of cruets, by Luigi Valadier or his workshop. Black and grey ink
on paper, 18.4 by 11 cm. (Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, Chippenham,
2667/18/15).
Right
21. Detail of Fig.8, showing the stopper of one of the cruets.
(© Diocese Portalegre-Castelo Branco).
that matches the drawings, such as the ornament on the borders of Via, a labourer for beating slabs, a joiner for making a table for
the basin, round dishes and oval trays. There are also some significant the silver, a turner, a wood-carver for making a model, a turner
variations between the services. The Portalegre set is in general simpler for making eight lids, a turner for making eight pepper-pots [?].34
and more naturalistic in its ornament than the Orsini service, although
its cruet stoppers – which are missing from the Orsini service – are of This is not necessarily a list of people who worked full time in the workshop;
unusual sophistication and beauty (Fig.21) and the pax is treated more it more probably refers to craftsmen whom Valadier called on to help
elaborately than the Orsini example. It depicts the Pietà in a composition fulfil commissions from the Borghese at that time. A silversmith such as
that seems to have been inspired by a famous seventeenth-century relief Francesco Giardoni would have owned his own workshop and foundry, so
in the now destroyed church of S. Maria della Navicella, Chioggia,32 rather his collaboration with the Valadier workshop would have been temporary.
than the Ecce Homo on the pax in the Orsini service – perhaps the result of The same is true of Pozzi and Borgiani, both from families of silversmiths
an intervention by the client or his agent? active in Rome in the eighteenth century. ‘Pippo’ (Filippo) Francisi (1750–
There are important differences between the drawings that can be 1816) was also a member of a family of silversmiths; his father, Giuseppe
explained by the context in which these pieces were made, a Roman (1720–87), had worked with Valadier from 1755 to 1785.35 Ghinassi, Manocchi
workshop in the second half of the eighteenth century. Valadier’s own and De Rossi are also the names of families of silversmiths.
hand is recognisable in such expressive sheets as the drawing for a holy The listing of the highly specific jobs highlights the multifarious
water bucket. The drawing for a pair of cruets formerly at New Wardour nature of the skills practised within the workshop: a polisher (‘pulitore’),
Castle,33 however, is a presentation piece made to be shown to potential a casemaker (‘astucciaro’), a bellmaker (‘campanaro’), two wood-carvers
clients and although it reflects Valadier’s mind and working methods it (‘ebanista’), two turners (‘tornitore’) and so on. Throughout the 1770s
was probably drawn by one of the numerous silver workers (lavoranti) in around one hundred craftsmen would continue to be involved with the
the workshop. This is typical of the diversity of the drawings known from workshop,36 their trades and skills ranging from silversmithing, casting,
Valadier’s workshop. gilding and sculpture (in stone or metal) to inlaying coloured stones (pietre
A bill in the Borghese archive concerning objects made around 1768– dure) and skilled carpentry (cabinetmaking). This explains the many
69, which coincides with the date of the Portalegre service, includes the different hands recognisable in the drawings from Valadier’s workshop.37
names of some of those who were employed in Valadier’s workshop: Furthermore, the shop’s commercial character (it was referred to as
‘negozio di belle arti’ some years later) is worthy of note.38 The first two rooms
Pippo Francisi and his son Micchele, Pozzi Maggiore (the elder), had doors, windows and shop fronts that looked onto the busy Strada
Vollinter, Camillo, Baroni, Andrea moulder, Pietro, Brandi, a Paolina and were used for displaying items and models that would draw
German, Master Giorgio, Derossi’s brother, a man from Livorno, in clients. This surely contributed to the growing diffusion of Valadier’s
a new worker, Derossi Maggiore (the elder), Paolone, Borgiani, works among a clientele who consisted not only of prominent figures
Leopoldo, Giulio polisher, Filippone, Checco del Frontone and in Roman society but also the agents of foreign dignitaries – one such
his assistants, Diego, Chiani, the one from Siena, a casemaker, might have acted for a Portuguese bishop – or even young aristocrats on
Giovannino, Venanzi, a bell maker, Giosafatt, Obbitelese, a their Grand Tour. Such clients did not require a unique object or set, but
coach-maker, Santi, Signor Claudio, Filippo from Ceprano, would be satisfied with a piece associated with the prestigious workshop
Giardoni, Ghinassi, Mannochj, Menichella, Ciriaco, Francesco of the Valadiers.
32 See U. Middeldorf and O. Goetz: roni, Andrea formatore, Pietro, Brandi, no, Giardoni, Ghinassi, Mannochj, Meni- 2017, op. cit. (note 2), pp.49–51.
Medals and Plaquettes from the un tedesco, Mastro Giorgio, il fratello di chella, Ciriaco, Francesco Via, un fac- 35 Bulgari, op. cit. (note 10), I, pp.461–62.
Sigmund Morgenroth Collection, Derossi, il livornese, un lavorante nuovo, chino per battere piastre, un ebanista 36 This figure rose to 180 in the 1780s,
Chicago 1944, p.28, no.186. I thank Derossi maggiore, Paolone, Borgiani, per una tavola per l’argento, un torni- see Di Castro, op. cit. (note 13), p.49.
Jennifer Montagu for kindly drawing Leopoldo, Giulio pulitore, Filippone, tore, un ebanista per un modello, un 37 On the role of drawing in the Valadier
my attention to this publication. Checco del Frontone e il suo lavorante, tornitore per otto coperchi, un tornito- workshop, see T.L.M. Vale: ‘Presenza e
33 See González-Palacios 2004, Diego, Chiani, il senese, un astucciaro, re per otto peparole’, transl. the author, ruolo del disegno nella bottega Valadier’,
op. cit. (note 12), p.361. Giovannino, Venanzi, un campanaro, Vatican, Archivio Segreto, Archivio Bor- in Leardi, op. cit. (note 26), pp.60–67.
34 ‘Pippo Francisi e il figlio, Micchele, Giosafatt, l’obbitellese, un facocchio, ghese, fol.5275; see González-Palacios 38 See Registro Generale, op. cit.
Pozzi Maggiore, Vollinter, Camillo, Ba- Santi, Signor Claudio, Filippo di cepra- 1997, op. cit. (note 12), p.28; and Vale (note 14).

Observing the artist at work:
a drawing by Verrocchio in Palermo
A drawing in Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio and perhaps
dateable to the late 1460s, is here published in full for the first time. Probably representing
the Virgin adoring the Christ Child, it provides evidence about the artist’s process of design.
Examination in UV light has, in addition, revealed faint sketches, or impressions of drawings,
by Verrocchio or members of his workshop.
by johannes nathan
A
s is typical for artists active before 1500, there are 1. Kneeling Virgin and Child (Virgin adoring the Christ Child?), by Andrea
very few surviving drawings by Andrea del Verrocchio del Verrocchio. Probably later 1460s. Black chalk, white heightening,
wash and pen and ink on paper, 20.5 by 17.4 cm (irregular). (Galleria
(1434/37–88), in relation to the number of studies he Regionale della Sicilia, Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo).
must have made in his lifetime. Only about a dozen
largely undisputed sheets are known, and even if one relatively little-known collection.3 She placed it in Verrocchio’s circle,
adds to these others of less certain attribution, the total tentatively suggesting an attribution to Biagio d’Antonio Tucci – a
barely exceeds twice that number.1 This article revisits a drawing that name to which she added a question mark.4 However, it was left to the
the present author fleetingly attributed to Verrocchio in 1996 in an present author in 1996 to draw attention to three roughly contemporary
exhibition review published in The Burlington Magazine.2 studies from Verrocchio’s circle that exhibit very close similarities
The drawing shows the Virgin kneeling in prayer with a child with this drawing, studies that exhibit the characteristics of copies.
seated on the ground who looks up and raises his arms towards her The best of these is in the British Museum, London (Fig.2),5 while the
(Fig.1). While the study beautifully conveys the intimacy of the pair, the other two, of much weaker quality and showing only the Virgin, are in
infant’s slightly exaggerated size and his somewhat unclear position in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Fig.3),6 and the Musée
relation to the Virgin indicate that the draughtsman’s ideas are still in Condé, Chantilly.7
flux. When first publishing this sheet in the catalogue of an exhibition of The last two once formed part of a now dismembered sketchbook
drawings from Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo in 1995, Annamaria Petrioli apparently dating from the later 1480s that is traditionally referred to
Tofani greeted it as one of the greatest surprises to emerge from that as the ‘Verrocchio sketchbook’ because it contains a substantial number
My warm thanks go to Andrew Palazzo Abatellis in December Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, inv. and the other two copies depend
Butterfield for his helpful comments, 2019. The exchanges with members no.5240/24; see the exhibition review on a lost prototype. For additional
as well as to Evelina De Castro, of these audiences and a subsequent by J. Nathan: ‘Maestri del Disegno comments on these copies and the
Salvatore Pagano and Valeria Sola of conversation with Lorenza Melli nelle collezioni di Palazzo Abatellis’, then still unidentified prototype,
Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, for kindly were all helpful in preparing the THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 138 (1996), see J. Nathan: The Working Methods
facilitating my research there. I am final version. Only selected pp.712–13. of Leonardo da Vinci and Their
also grateful to Hugo Chapman for publications that appeared after 3 See A. Petrioli Tofani, entry in Relation to Previous Artistic
answering my queries on the the article’s submission could be V. Abbate, ed.: exh. cat. Maestri del Practice, unpublished PhD diss.
Verrocchio drawings in the British taken into consideration. Disegno nelle collezioni di Palazzo (Courtauld Institute of Art, London,
Museum, to Daniel Minder for his 1 For surveys of Verrocchio’s Abatellis, Palermo (Palazzo Abatellis) 1995), pp.124–26.
precious observations on aspects of drawings, see A. Butterfield: The 1995–96, p.88, no.1. The question of 6 Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Palermo drawing’s technique and Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio, the infant’s identification is discussed New York, inv. no.1972.118.252, for
the traces on its verso, to Brigit Blass- New Haven 1997, pp.185–98; D. Covi: in more detail below. which see L. Pisani: Francesco di
Simmen and Frank Zöllner for help Andrea del Verrocchio: Life and Work, 4 Petrioli Tofani, op. cit. (note 3). Simone Ferrucci. Itinerari di uno
with questions of iconography and to Florence 2005, pp.215–47; C. Bambach: For Biagio d’Antonio Tucci and the scultore fiorentino fra Toscana,
Peter Fuhring for advice on Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered, New paintings grouped around this artist, Romagna e Montefeltro, Florence
provenance. Additional thanks go to Haven and London 2019, I, pp.81–193; see R. Bartoli: Biagio d’Antonio, 2007, pp.159–60; P. Parmiggiani in
Johannes Röll and the anonymous peer and L. Melli: ‘Verrocchio the Milan 1999; and Covi, op. cit. (note 1), F. Caglioti and A. De Marchi, eds:
reviewer, to Wolfgang Haase for his draftsman: model and maestro’, in pp.195–97. exh. cat. Verrocchio, il maestro di
much appreciated help and above all to A. Butterfield, ed.: exh. cat. Verrocchio. 5 British Museum, London, inv. Leonardo, Florence (Palazzo Strozzi)
Antoinette Friedenthal for her Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance no.1963,1109.23, published in S. Gross- 2019, no.5.2; Bambach, op. cit.
constant support and many perceptive Florence, Washington (National Gallery man: ‘An anonymous Florentine (note 1), I, pp.150–51; and Melli,
observations. After submission of this of Art) 2019–20, pp.87–100, and entries drawing and the “so-called Verrocchio op. cit. (note 1), no.34.
text I presented its essence at a to nos.33–35 and 36 (with Maximilian sketchbook”’, Master Drawings 10 7 Musée Condé, Chantilly, inv.
conference on Leonardo da Vinci in Hernandez), 37–41, 44–48 and 50–51. (1972), pp.15–19, who perceptively no.23 (17), for which see Pisani,
Leipzig in July 2019 and in a lecture at 2 Galleria Regionale della Sicilia suggested that the drawing in question op. cit. (note 6), p.147.
NATHAN_Verrocchio.indd 204 18/02/2020 21:39


A drawing by Verrocchio in Palermo
2. Kneeling Virgin and Child (Virgin adoring the Christ Child?), by

a follower of Andrea del Verrocchio. Probably later 1460s or early
1470s. Black chalk and white heightening (oxidised) over indications
in stylus or erased leadpoint on paper, 19.8 by 17 cm (irregular).
(British Museum, London).
3. Kneeling Virgin and other studies, from the workshop of Francesco
di Simone Ferrucci. Later 1480s. Pen and brown ink over leadpoint or
black chalk on rose washed-paper, 27.4 by 19.8 cm. (The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York).
of copies after the master’s inventions. As it clearly stems from the

workshop of Francesco di Simone Ferrucci – a less prominent Florentine
sculptor who, although hardly younger than Verrocchio, was evidently
treading in the older artist’s footsteps – it will here be referred to as the
‘Ferrucci sketchbook’.8 After a careful comparison of these copies with
the Palermo sheet, and considering the exceptional quality of the latter,
the present author attributed it to Verrocchio himself in 1996.9
The drawing’s overall appearance and details exhibit all the
hallmarks of Verrocchio’s art. The composition resembles the so-called
‘Ruskin Madonna’ (Fig.4), an impressive painting that was almost
certainly designed by the master and probably executed under his close
supervision, if not by him.10 Moreover, details of the drawing such as the
Virgin’s hair and her roundish face – with high forehead, large downcast
eyes, a rather broad nose and full lips – exactly match Verrocchio’s
celebrated female type, perhaps best exemplified by a magisterial drawing
in the British Museum (Fig.5).11 Other similarities between the Palermo
drawing and extant works by Verrocchio abound: the Virgin’s drapery
is strongly reminiscent of the Baptist’s drapery in Verrocchio’s relief
for Florence’s Baptistery altar (Fig.8),12 and its general disposition also
recalls draperies in other works by Verrocchio, notably in the Christ and
St Thomas group made for Orsanmichele in Florence,13 or in the so-called
‘Madonna di Piazza’, an altarpiece painted in Verrocchio’s workshop for
Pistoia Cathedral.14 Moreover, the child – drawn lightly but sufficiently
distinctly to reveal the draughtsman’s remarkable skill – is typical of
Verrocchio’s extraordinary ability to represent infants in motion; he
could easily join the delightful group of small children that populate
one of the artist’s finest sheets, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (Fig.7).15
Its central putto, apparently interacting with a figure to be imagined in
the upper right, is particularly close to the infant in our study.
Some details in the Palermo drawing are indicated with only faint
outlines, while others – the Virgin’s face and particularly her drapery
– are highly worked, as the draughtsman strove to precisely define
these areas. Such combinations of very different states of finish are not
untypical of drawings by Verrocchio and his circle, an example being
the study for a tomb monument in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London (Fig.6).16 In terms of technique, the figures are drawn mostly
with black chalk, again in a manner recalling other drawings by
Verrocchio. It appears to have been carefully rubbed in some areas,
8 Twenty-eight known sheets from this Disegno nelle collezioni di Palazzo

sketchbook are distributed over eleven Abatellis’ (exh. review), Master
collections, see Pisani, op. cit. (note 6), Drawings 36 (1998), pp.305–07; and
pp.12–13 and 142–66; and Bambach, op. P.L. Rubin in idem and A. Wright, eds:
cit. (note 1), I, pp.150–51, who now calls exh. cat. Renaissance Florence. The
it the ‘Ferrucci workshop sketchbook’. Art of the 1470s, London (National
9 Nathan, op. cit. (note 2), p.712. Only Gallery) 1999–2000, p.218, no.41. Both
stated briefly at the time, this of them refrained from passing a final
attribution has hardly been noted in verdict, but Wolk-Simon, qualifying the
the literature. Thus, it was left sheet as a ‘significant new addition’, did
unmentioned in the monographs by not discuss the clues presented by the
Butterfield 1997, op. cit. (note 1); Covi, copies. In addition to these two
op. cit. (note 1); and Pisani, op. cit. (note authors, the following have briefly
6), although the latter two discussed mentioned the drawing without
the three copies. Only two scholars addressing this author’s attribution
considered the present author’s of 1996 and without giving it to
attribution: L. Wolk-Simon: ‘Maestri del Verrocchio: C. Bambach in idem, ed.:

4. Kneeling Virgin adoring the Christ Child, attributed to Andrea del possibly with the intention of clarifying some outlines for the benefit
Verrocchio, probably 1470s. Tempera and oil on canvas (transferred of copyists.
from panel), 106.7 by 76.3 cm. (Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh;
Bridgeman Images). Although it is well known that artists’ training in the Renaissance
5. Head of a woman, by Andrea del Verrocchio. Probably 1470s. Charcoal was based on copying, the survival of no fewer than three contemporary
on paper, 32.5 by 27.2 cm. (British Museum, London). copies of the same prototype is unusual, testifying to the popularity of
this composition in Verrocchio’s shop and circle.18 Given the relatively
perhaps with a finger, in order to achieve the exquisite effects of shading low survival rate of drawings from the later fifteenth century, there must
in the Virgin’s face and her drapery.17 The latter was then worked up surely have been other copies. Hence it is legitimate to ask whether the
with white heightening applied with a brush; this, too, looks as if it was Palermo drawing might also be a copy rather than the original design –
skilfully rubbed or smudged in selected areas. Finally, the artist finished yet a careful examination of the original clearly shows that this cannot
the study by applying an apparently pinkish coloured wash, now mostly be so. Details such as the lines that define the Virgin’s hair, her right
faded but visible in ultraviolet light (Fig.9), and a few contour lines were shoulder and upper right arm, her hands, the drapery spreading in
reinforced with pen and ink – something which may have been done various directions on the floor, and the child, particularly his arms and
only after the drawing was completed, perhaps even by another hand, legs, were drawn with searching strokes. They testify to an exploratory
exh. cat. Leonardo da Vinci: Master months after submission of the present V. Sorrentino, in Butterfield 2019, 16 Victoria and Albert Museum,
Draftsman, New York (Metropolitan article, fully endorses the attribution to op. cit. (note 1), no.28 (attributed to London, inv. no.2314, for which see
Museum) 2003, p.278; G. Dalli Regoli: Verrocchio. However, the sheet was Verrocchio and Ghirlandaio). J. Sisk in Butterfield 2019, op. cit.
‘La Fuggitiva. Una “Giovane donna in unfortunately not sent to Washington 11 British Museum, London, inv. (note 1), no.43; and Bambach, op. cit.
fuga”: problemi attorno a un disegno due to administrative complications in no.1895,0915.785, for which see Melli, (note 1), I, pp.159–61.
fiorentino del ’400’, Critica d’arte 79 Italy. Generally, the drawing’s reception op. cit. (note 1), no.38. 17 Similar effects were achieved in the
(2007), pp.7–59, at pp.45–46; and has been hampered by the relative 12 Butterfield 1997, op. cit. (note 1), studies of heads in the Christ Church
Bambach, op. cit. (note 1), IV, p.99, note remoteness of its location. It is hoped pp.218–20, no.16; and Covi, op. cit. Picture Gallery, Oxford, inv. no.0005;
326. In March 2018 the present author that the present contribution will (note 1), pp.115–21. the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, inv.
mentioned his attribution of this convince scholars that it deserves to 13 Butterfield 1997, op. cit. (note 1), no.5095; and the Gallerie degli Uffizi,
drawing to Verrocchio to Andrew be better known. pp.209–12, no.8; and Covi, op. cit. (note Florence, GDS inv. no.130E, sheets
Butterfield and it was subsequently 10 Scottish National Gallery, 1), pp.71–87. discussed in Bambach, op. cit. (note 1),
requested as a loan to the recent Edinburgh, inv. no.NG2338, for which 14 Covi, op. cit. (note 1), pp.174–80. I, pp.96–102 and p.134. For a discussion
Verrocchio exhibition at the National see A. Angelini, in Caglioti and De 15 Musée du Louvre, Paris, Départe- of the technique, see, for example, Melli,
Gallery of Art, Washington. The Marchi, op. cit. (note 6), no.5.4 ment des arts graphiques, inv. no.RF2 op. cit. (note 1), p.93.
succinct catalogue entry by Melli, op. (attributed to Ghirlandaio); and verso, for which see Bambach, op. cit. 18 As also observed in Dalli Regoli, op.
cit. (note 1), no.33, published several G. Hirschauer, E. Walmsley and (note 1), I, pp.154–57. cit. (note 9), p.46.

6. Detail of Study for a funerary monument to Doge Andrea

Vendramin, by Andrea del Verrocchio. Probably early 1480s. Leadpoint
partly reworked with pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash on
paper, 27.3 by 17.5 cm. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
7. Studies of putti, by Andrea del Verrocchio. Perhaps 1470s. Pen and ink
on paper, 15.8 by 21 cm. (Musée du Louvre, Paris; RMN-Grand Palais).
process, and in this they differ sharply from the corresponding details
in the copies, which are conscientiously and sometimes timidly drawn.
Even the best of these, that in the British Museum, although carefully
recording alternative positions for the infant’s arms and legs, obviously
seeks to extract the ‘valid’ outlines of the model and thus avoids all
corrections in the main figure.
In the Palermo sheet, on the other hand, the unresolved alternatives
clearly illustrate the evolution of the composition and the draughtsman’s and indeed seems to anticipate the famous, much discussed group of
reflections. This is particularly evident, for instance, in the folds that drapery studies from Verrocchio’s workshop and circle, drawn with wash
project into space at the height of the Virgin’s left elbow – ultimately a and white on dark prepared linen, that exhibit similar if perhaps even
rather unconvincing detail that was ignored when the figure’s contours more dazzling effects of light and shade.19
were reinforced with pen and ink and which, significantly, was also Given that the Palermo study cannot be a copy, and given its
omitted by the copyists. Altogether, the Palermo sheet captures the emotional intensity and aesthetic appeal, it is surely reasonable to
stage when the draughtsman gave particular attention to the drapery. abandon its attribution to Biagio d’Antonio, a relatively undistinguished
Its high definition, combined with subtle explorations of light and shade artist who often leaned on Verrocchio’s inventions.20 In the present
achieved through a remarkably sophisticated combination of chalk, author’s view, our drawing should instead be given to the master
white heightening and wash, speaks of the artist’s extraordinary skill himself. In fact, Petrioli Tofani, who considered the quality of this study
19 For a recent study of the linen Bartoli, op. cit. (note 4), p.31. She Leonardo da Vinci. Il disegno del mondo, bindings of other volumes of the same
drapery studies, see Bambach, op. cit. accepts, however, the drawing of the Milan (Palazzo Reale) 2015, pp.529–30 series are preserved, however, but
(note 1), I, pp.163–93. female head as by Biagio d’Antonio, (no.III.7), rightly observes that doubts they do not seem to exhibit particular
20 Petrioli Tofani, op. cit. (note 3) rightly suggesting that it depends on a on the attribution of these drawings to clues on their earlier provenance.
tentatively connected the Palermo readily available prototype in Verrocchio may have been due to their 25 The unevenly distributed traces
sheet with two other drawings. The Verrocchio’s shop, ibid., pp.37–38. Like unsatisfactory state of preservation. of glue visible on the empty page
first, representing Faith (Uffizi, many other scholars (including the 23 Uffizi, Florence, inv. no.8358, see suggest that the sheet was stuck
Florence; GDS inv. no.208E), is usually present author), Bartoli finds the two F. Zöllner with J. Nathan: Leonardo. down rather sloppily.
associated with Verrocchio’s workshop Uffizi sheets stylistically incompatible. The Complete Paintings and Drawings, 26 None of the illustrations published
or even given to the master himself, the 21 Petrioli Tofani, op. cit. (note 3), Cologne 2019, no.IV. Grossman, op. cit. so far does justice to the subtleties
latter attribution recently supported ultimately felt that the study lacked (note 5), p.19 also mentions a tondo of this study and the same is true even
by (among others) Melli, op. cit. (note 1), Verrocchio’s confident grasp of the attributed to the Master of the of a photograph kindly supplied by
pp.98–99. The second is a study of a volumes in relation to the ground, of Johnson Magdalen where the drapery Palazzo Abatellis in January 2019.
female head (Uffizi, Florence; GDS inv. the spatial context and of the play of of the Virgin clearly follows the model (The reproductions of the drawing
no.1254E) discussed for instance in light and shade – putative deficiencies shown in our drawing (illustrated in in this article are made from the
Covi, op. cit. (note 1), p.196, a drawing which can be explained by the Palermo G. Dalli Regoli: Lorenzo di Credi, Milan author’s photographs.)
commonly given to Biagio d’Antonio drawing’s exploratory character 1966, p.194, no.265, fig.285). 27 Rubin, op. cit. (note 9).
Tucci on the basis of solid and the evident damage by rubbing, 24 Evidently for lack of larger sheets of 28 These copies could have been drawn
circumstantial evidence. Bartoli does clearly visible for instance in the paper, the pages of the album were each after either the Palermo or the British
not discuss Petrioli Tofani’s tentative Virgin’s drapery. made up of two relatively thin sheets Museum sheets or from a now lost
attribution of the Palermo sheet to 22 Uffizi, Florence, GDS inv. nos.443E stuck together horizontally in the additional copy – the latter possibility
that artist in her 1999 monograph, but and 444E, for which see recently Melli, centre. The album was rebound in the being the most probable, given that the
she rightly rejects the attribution to op. cit. (note 1), nos.40 and 41. F. Rinaldi later twentieth century and the original Ferrucci sketchbok was almost certainly
Biagio of the study for Faith, see in P.C. Marani et al., eds: exh. cat. binding does not appear to survive. The not made in Verrocchio’s shop.

‘anything but deficient’ (‘tutt’altro che scadente’), briefly entertained an the Palermo drawing or, less probably, from a now lost intermediary tracing
attribution to Verrocchio, a thought that would surely have gained of identical size.29 The child, however – who is omitted in the sketchbook
more substance had she considered the copies. Hesitations concerning copies – is not a tracing but appears to be a carefully drawn interpretation
an attribution to Verrocchio might also have been fostered by the of the model: perhaps this detail of the Palermo sheet, difficult to read
somewhat impaired condition of the drawing, which, combined with today, was never sufficiently distinct to allow it to be traced.
the evidence presented by the copies, strengthens the assumption The fact that the Palermo and British Museum sheets confirm
that it was used repeatedly as a model in the workshop.21 Indeed it has the practice of tracing is significant. This practice, apparently not yet
recently been proposed that a long-prevailing – but now justly overcome
– reluctance to attribute to Verrocchio two drawings in the Galleria 8. Detail of Beheading of St John the Baptist, by Andrea del Verrocchio.
degli Uffizi, Florence (one of them illustrated in Fig.10), may similarly 1477–78. Silver with blue smalt mounted on wood, height of detail approx.
15 cm. (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence; Bridgeman Images).
have been due to their somewhat damaged state of preservation: as in
9. UV-light photograph of the drawing shown in Fig.1, revealing the use of
the Palermo drawing, their passages in black chalk seem to have suffered wash and a faded number ‘37’ in the lower right corner.
from rubbing.22 That the drawing performed the function of a model
is additionally suggested by a comparison between the most salient
parts of the Virgin’s drapery and the mantle of St John in the Baptism
of Christ probably commissioned for the church of S. Salvi, Florence,
which is arranged in a strikingly similar manner around the saint’s hips
and over his right thigh (Figs.11 and 12).23 As is typical for Verrocchio’s
phenomenal handling of drapery, the solution in the Palermo drawing
convinces through its effect more than its plausibility in detail, and as
such it was evidently deemed worthy of prominent positions in very
different contexts.
When it was prepared for the 1995 exhibition, the sheet was removed
from a rather shabby album (probably dating from the eighteenth
century)24 into which it had been pasted relatively carelessly,25 and
several holes in the paper – the most disturbing of these clearly evident
next to the Virgin’s right elbow – were closed. Given its condition, it
is understandable that Patricia Rubin – presumably lacking access to a
high resolution image26 – was puzzled by the ‘unworked areas’ around
the Virgin’s right shoulder and arm, a supposed lacuna that seemed to
place our sheet at the same level as the copies and which, according
to Rubin, suggested that it was not the original.27 However, a close
examination of the original reveals that the area in question was in fact
fully drawn with several alternative outlines that were carefully if softly
applied with black chalk in a manner quite congruous with other studies
by Verrocchio, such as the drawing from the Uffizi illustrated here
(Fig.10). Their appearance again underlines the exploratory character
of the drawing.
Measurements of the study and its copies, as well as an overlay of actual-
size transparencies, reveal that, while the copies in the Ferrucci sketchbook
are larger than the Palermo drawing and were clearly drawn free-hand,28
the Virgin in the copy in the British Museum was evidently traced from
29 The impressions of a stylus in the Leonardo da Vinci. Background

British Museum copy were presumably Material and the Example of the Leda,
made when the design was transferred unpublished MA thesis (Courtauld
from the model. Tracing techniques Institute of Art, London 1990), and
were already described in the early has since been frequently discussed,
fifteenth century, see C. Cennini: Il libro recently for instance in Bambach, op.
dell’arte. Edizione critica e commento cit. (note 1), I, p.361. See also idem:
linguistico, ed. V. Ricotta, Milan 2019, Drawing and Painting in the Italian
chs.XIII–XVI. However, evidence of its Renaissance Workshop. Theory and
use before c.1500 is quite rare today: a Practice, 1300–1600, Cambridge 1999,
tracing on parchment in the British pp.83–86, which additionally mentions
Museum, London, inv. no.1885,0509.1614, similar practices in the workshop of
was apparently made from an original Lorenzo di Credi and their probable
by Antonio Pollaiuolo in the Musée du origin in Verrocchio’s shop. More
Louvre, Paris, Département des arts evidence on such exchanges,
graphiques, inv. no.INV1486, for which particularly the circulation of sculptural
see in particular L. Melli: ‘Sull’uso della models, is considered by L. Pisani:
carta lucida nel Quattrocento e un ‘The exchange of models in Florentine
esempio per il Pollaiolo’, Paragone. Arte workshops of the quattrocento: a sheet
52 (2001), pp.3–9. Another example for from the “Verrocchio Sketchbook”’,
the use of tracing in Leonardo da Vinci’s Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
early Milanese workshop in the 1480s Institutes 67 (2004), pp.269–74,
was identified by the present author, discussing fascinating notes on the
see J. Nathan: Workshop Practices of subject in the Ferrucci sketchbook.

otherwise documented in Verrocchio’s shop, provides a precious clue

for the artist’s working methods as it is in line with evidence supplied
by the several pricked designs among his surviving sheets.30 As no extant
painting has been convincingly associated with any of these, they need
not necessarily have been used for the final transfer of a design to a
painting surface. Instead, they might also have served as intermediaries
in a step-by-step development of a particular design through a succession
of drawings, all the more so as there are sometimes surprising deviations
between some contour lines and the prick marks.31 Such manners of
elaboration are also evident from the recto of the great head study in
the British Museum (the verso of which is here illustrated as Fig.5),
which shows the same head, but very slightly turned and tilted, thus
documenting the minute alterations with which the artist experimented.32
Different means of mechanical replication – tracing, pricking and
pouncing – would undoubtedly have been useful in the course of such a
careful elaboration of a design, and such mechanical transfer techniques
are indeed evident in surviving drawings by artists who were associated
with Verrocchio, namely Perugino and above all Leonardo da Vinci.33
Indeed, a significant discovery on a large early drawing by Leonardo – a
study for the Virgin and Child in the Louvre, perhaps drawn while the
artist was still associated with Verrocchio – has recently shown that the
rapid, seemingly freehand sketch of the infant was drawn over pounce
marks, demonstrating the use of a mechanical transfer technique at a
highly exploratory stage of the design process.34 Given that Leonardo’s
early art reflects his master’s practice in so many ways, it may be assumed
that Verrocchio had also employed mechanical transfer techniques when
working out a composition. Such uses of mechanical replication would
have allowed for the involvement of assistants at many different levels
– from simple pricking to more complex copying assignments – and
Verrocchio’s output as a painter is known to have relied heavily on the
help of collaborators.35 Thus, the British Museum drawing may well have
been made at the request of Verrocchio himself, who perhaps wished to
see a clean copy of his exploratory study before continuing his work on
the composition.
Like the majority of Verrocchio’s surviving drawings, the Palermo
study cannot be linked securely with any of his extant works, although 10. Study for a Virgin with the Christ Child, by Andrea del Verrocchio.
the characteristics of the composition suggest that it was made for a Probably 1470s. Black chalk on lightly prepared paper, 28.2 by 19.3 cm.
(Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).
painting rather than a relief. It may have served as an early study for the
‘Ruskin Madonna’, yet the Virgin’s drapery differs very substantially from the expressive but slightly illogical appearance of the drapery – somewhat
that in the painting. Such differences do not necessarily argue against a obfuscating the Virgin’s right thigh and knee, for instance – suggest that
closer connection between this painting and the drawing, which, made it is based on a set of typical forms that Verrocchio explored from his
at a crucial moment of the thought process, evidently stands somewhere imagination.
midway between the first idea and the final design. As the drawing features The subject of the drawing has been interpreted in different ways.
motifs with which the artist must have been deeply familiar, notably the Petrioli Tofani, perhaps struck by the fact that the Virgin’s prayer does not
Virgin’s face and the child, it seems unlikely that it was drawn from the live seem to be aimed at the infant, assumed that the child is St John rather
model. Instead, the outlines of the figures, deft and searching at once, and than Christ, who, she believed, should be imagined outside the composition
30 See the drawings listed in note 17. pp.129–31; Nathan, op. cit. (note 5), for scale and appearance to the child in the Perugino’, in Caglioti and De Marchi, op.
31 For a discussion of such deviations in example pp.236–39; and A. Donnithorne: Madonna Benois in the State Hermitage cit. (note 6), pp.49–77; and G.A.
the drawing in the Christ Church Picture Leonardo da Vinci. A Closer Look, Museum, St Petersburg, for which see Hirschauer and E. Walmsley:
Gallery, Oxford (inv. no.0005), indicating London 2019, pp.70–77. Zöllner, op. cit. (note 23), no.VI. See also ‘Verrocchio’s spring: collaboration in
that the design had not reached its final 34 Musée du Louvre, Paris, Départe- Mottin, op. cit. (this note) pp.383–84, for the painting workshop’, in Butterfield
stage in this sheet but was still evolving, ment des arts graphiques, inv.RF486, spolvero marks on a later study of the 2019, op. cit. (note 1), pp.69–85.
see Nathan, op. cit. (note 5), pp.117–19. probably drawn in the later 1470s, Virgin and Child with St Anne in the 36 Petrioli Tofani, op. cit. (note 3).
32 Nathan, op. cit. (note 5), pp.112–15. perhaps around the time when Leonardo Louvre, Département des arts 37 This description was used in the
33 For Perugino, see S. Ferino Pagden, made himself independent from graphiques, inv. no.RF460. caption of fig.99 (not provided by the
ed.: Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia. Verrocchio. The pounce marks were 35 For an overview of Verrocchio’s author), in Nathan, op. cit. (note 2).
Disegni umbri, Milan 1984, pp.142–43; for discovered and are perceptively activity as painter, the artists 38 Specifically, The Virgin adoring the
Leonardo, see C. Cappel [C. Bambach]: discussed in B. Mottin: ‘Léonard de Vinci associated with him and the problems Child with St John and a hermit saint,
The Tradition of Pouncing Drawings in et l’art du dessin. Une approche de of attribution surrounding many by Filippo Lippi, c.1459, oil on panel, 129.5
the Italian Renaissance Workshop, laboratoire’, in V. Delieuvin and L. Frank, paintings from his shop, see Covi, op. cit. by 118.5 cm. (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv.
unpublished PhD diss. (Yale University eds: exh. cat. Léonard de Vinci, Paris (note 1), pp.173–214; and A. De Marchi: no.69). For the importance of this
1988), II, pp.165–200; idem: ‘Pounced (Louvre) 2019–20, pp.370–84, at pp.376– ‘Le geometrie luminose di Verrocchio composition for younger artists, see R.
drawings in the Codex Atlanticus’, 77. Mottin observes that the cartoon pittore e le loro diffrazioni a Firenze sul Kecks: Madonna und Kind. Das häusliche
Achademia Leonardi Vinci 3 (1990), used for this drawing is very close in 1470, tra Leonardo, Ghirlandaio e Andachtsbild im Florenz des 15. Jahr-

shown on the sheet.36 Other viewers felt that the arrangement of the Virgin’s
drapery suggests that she is pregnant, an assumption that would be in line
with the idea that the infant is St John, who might thus be saluting the as yet
unborn child, to whom the mother would also direct her prayer. Yet another
viewer, failing to notice the lightly drawn child at all, even suggested that
the kneeling woman is an ‘Annunciate Virgin’,37 a misreading that none
the less has the merit of identifying a possible source for this figural type.
The image, essentially a dramatic close-up of the two protagonists,
apparently sprang to popularity in mid-fifteenth-century Florentine art.
Its development seems to have been spearheaded in several paintings by
Filippo Lippi38 who surely played a major role in Verrocchio’s formation as
a painter. Lippi’s composition – which elevates the mother and her child
to particular prominence – undoubtedly refers to the then widely diffused
revelations of St Bridget of Sweden, specifically a vision of the nativity she
experienced during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1372.39 In Bethlehem
Bridget had seen how the Virgin, left alone and kneeling in prayer, gave a
seemingly effortless birth to Christ, who suddenly appeared lying before
her on the ground. Bridget’s detailed account goes on to describe how,
after delivery, the womb of the Virgin receded and how the crying child
extended his arms, wishing to find comfort and his mother’s affection.40
At first sight there appears to be a high degree of congruence between
Bridget’s vision and the drawing, which might depict a moment soon
11. Detail of Fig.1, showing the drapery.
after the birth, before the womb had fully receded. There are significant
12. Detail of The Baptism of Christ, by Andrea del Verrocchio,
deviations from Bridget’s narrative, however. The child is not newborn, nor Leonardo da Vinci and assistant(s). Probably mid-1470s. Oil on panel,
does it seem to be in distress, while the Virgin’s mantle, taking centre stage 177 by 151 cm. (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).
in the drawing, had in Bridget’s account been removed and laid to one side
before the nativity. While there can nevertheless be little doubt that the Thus the Palermo drawing beautifully illustrates how the artist
drawing refers to Bridget’s vision, the lingering uncertainties concerning progressed by combining figural types. Having drawn the Virgin, he
some of its details are indicative of the artist’s method. carefully set down an infant whose spatial relation to the main figure
Verrocchio was prone to developing solutions for salient details that is, unsurprisingly, not yet resolved. Proceeding cautiously – particularly
could be transferred from one context to another,41 an observation borne while sketching the most expressive details of the Virgin’s face, her hands
out by his drawings of heads and his use of cartoons.42 The female face that and the highly delicate outlines of the infant – Verrocchio worked with
he drew so masterfully in his British Museum study, for instance, was used what seems to have been a characteristic sense of experiment, allowing the
both for the Virgin and for a nymph;43 the idealised head of a youth44 could evolving composition to prompt his next moves – a method also apparent
serve both for an angel45 and for a sculpture of David (Fig.13); a facial type in the two drawings of the Virgin and Child in the Uffizi. The drawing
suitable for St Jerome46 also supplied the initial prototype for the head of thus provides a fascinating document for Verrocchio’s work on a seminal
Bartolommeo Colleoni (Fig.14); the head of Goliath at David’s feet in the composition. Judging from its experimental character, the Palermo study
sculpture is strikingly similar to that of St John in the ‘Madonna di Piazza’ is likely to belong to an early stage of this process and may thus predate
altarpiece in Pistoia Cathedral (and was in fact mistaken for a head of St the 1470s, when his workshop apparently produced most of its paintings,
John after it had been detached from the sculpture);47 an infant representing among them probably the ‘Ruskin Madonna’.49 Significantly, Leonardo
St John in one composition could easily become Christ in another;48 and later often returned to compositions built around the kneeling Virgin
the principal pattern of the drapery in the Palermo drawing was re-used adoring the Christ Child, notably in his Virgin of the Rocks,50 while some
for a male figure. In his inventions Verrocchio aimed to bring out the very of his earlier studies for an Adoration of the Shepherds (Fig.15)51 reveal his
essence of particular motifs that, once developed, could perform a variety indecision concerning the inclusion of a St John, who is sometimes present
of functions. Conversely, this means that it can be difficult to identify a and sometimes absent.52 Like so many of the younger artist’s predilections,
particular motif when it is deprived of a definite context. this one was probably also based on reminiscences of his master’s art.
hunderts, Berlin 1988, pp.71–72; and M. cleaning and examination of “The Virgin by G. Hirschauer in Butterfield 2019, evidence concerning the dates of most
Holmes: Fra Filippo Lippi. The Carmelite and Child with two angels”’, National op. cit. (note 1), no.23. paintings and drawings from
Painter, New Haven 1999, p.172. Gallery Technical Bulletin 31 (2010), 47 Entry by A. Luchs and D. Smith in Verrocchio’s workshop. An early date
39 For the diffusion and reception of pp.4–41, at pp.23–26; see also Butterfield 2019, op. cit. (note 1), no.1. for our drawing has been proposed, see
Bridget’s vision of the nativity up to Hirschauer and Walmsley, op. cit. 48 For a similar problem of identifi- Melli, op. cit. (note 1), no.33. Some notes
c.1420, see F. Wolf: Die Weihnachtsvision (note 35), pp.82–83. cation, see Bambach 2019, op. cit. (note in the Ferrucci sketchbook date from
der Birgitta von Schweden. Bildkunst 43 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, GDS 1), I, pp.161–63, who is uncertain whether 1487 and later, thus providing a late
und Imagination im Wechselspiel, 212E, for which see Bambach, op. cit. the drawing of an infant in the terminus ante quem for our drawing
Regensburg 2018. (note 1), I, pp.102–06. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, copied there, see Pisani, op. cit. (note 6),
40 S. Birgitta: Revelationes, Nuremberg 44 Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, inv. no.2930, was made for a Christ or for pp.142–66.
1500, book VII, ch.21 (ISCT no. no.5095. a St John. 50 See Zöllner, op. cit. (note 23), pp.72–
ib00688000). 45 National Gallery, London, no.296, 49 Covi, op. cit. (note 1), pp.204–07 87, and nos.XI and XVI.
41 For Verrocchio’s use of such types, for which see entry by G. Hirschauer and dates this painting to the mid-1470s; 51 Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, GDS
see Nathan, op. cit. (note 5), pp.112–27. E. Walmsley in Butterfield 2019, op. cit. Angelini op. cit. (note 10) dates it to inv. no.256, see J. Nathan with F. Zöllner:
42 In his paintings, Verrocchio used (note 1), no.25. about 1470; and Hirschauer, Walmsley Leonardo da Vinci. The Graphic Work,
cartoons for details such as heads and 46 Palazzo Pitti, Florence, inv. no.1912, and Sorrentino, op. cit. (note 10), date it Cologne 2014, nos.1, 8 and 124; and
hands, see J. Dunkerton and L. Syson: n.370; for this and other paintings of the to the second half of the 1470s. The Bambach, op. cit. (note 1), I, pp.238–42
‘In search of Verrocchio the painter: the same type by Verrocchio see entry divergent opinions reflect the lack of and 281–83.

Thus, when looking at one of his very early drawings, a superb drapery
study (Fig.16), one senses that Leonardo had once been made to copy
models such as the one in Palermo when he began his apprenticeship53 and
the formation he had received from Verrocchio indeed continued to leave
its marks on his working methods as an artist throughout his career.54
No serious attribution should neglect a consideration of provenance,
and the search for clues here offers a rewarding surprise. An examination
of the sheet’s verso in ultraviolet light reveals clearly visible traces of at
least three additional drawings (Fig.17). These traces perhaps document
lost studies that were once kept together with the drawing, allowing them
to impress their outlines on its verso.55 If so, the images they record are
now reversed. At the upper centre one recognises the abdomen, genitals,
upper thighs and lower arm with clenched fist of a nude youth. This study,
which appears to have lost its upper part when the sheet was cut at the
top,56 has a close match in a copy after a study for Verrocchio’s David from
the Ferrucci sketchbook (Fig.18).57 Further down to the right we discern
another drawing of a young man, his near arm akimbo, the other arm
bent behind the back, his abdomen and thighs slightly turned to our right.
This study again exhibits some similarities with the pose of the David,
but it also recalls a drawing in Hamburg (Fig.19), lending support to the
recent proposal that the latter stems from Verrocchio’s workshop, and
perhaps even from the master himself.58 A third fragment, just above the
second one, shows the head of an old man seen from below, a type known
from several works by Verrocchio and his circle, among them a drawing
in Edinburgh59 and the equestrian monument of Bartolomeo Colleoni.60
13. David, by Andrea del Verrocchio. Before 1476. Bronze, height 126 cm.
(Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; Bridgeman Images).
14. Detail of Equestrian monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni, by Andrea
del Verrocchio. c.1485 onwards (completed posthumously, unveiled
1496). Bronze, height of detail approx. 50 cm. (Campo SS. Giovanni e
Paolo, Venice; Bridgeman Images).
If these ghosts record drawings by Verrocchio himself, they

must have belonged to an early stage of the working process as they
are relatively small in scale. Their apparent quality suggests that
they were made by him, although they may of course instead record
competent copies of his designs. In either case these remnants present
precious if indirect evidence of some of Verrocchio’s lost studies, thus
complementing our knowledge of his working methods. They deserve
a thorough technical examination, all the more so as the possibility
cannot be excluded that we are looking at the faded remnants of
leadpoint sketches rather than impressions left behind by drawings on
other sheets.61 In that case, the shading, which clearly runs from top
52 Leonardo drew the St John in lead- prototype by Verrocchio.

point but ignored the figure when going 54 For a detailed study of Leonardo’s
over the sketch with pen. Conversely, methods of drawing and design and his
infra-red reflectography of a study for debt to the practice of Verrocchio
an Adoration in the Musée Bonnat, (among others), see Nathan, op. cit.
Bayonne, inv. no.658, revealed that (note 5), for example pp.170–79 and
Leonardo drew the St John with the 219–23; and also idem: ‘Motiv und
pen but had not sketched him in the Methode. Zur Wechselwirkung von
leadpoint underdrawing, see Mottin, Arbeitspraxis und Denkweise bei
op. cit. (note 34), p.378. Leonardo da Vinci‘, in F. Fehrenbach,
53 Istituto Nazionale della Grafica, ed.: Leonardo da Vinci. Natur im
Rome, inv. no.F.C.125770, see Nathan, Übergang, Munich 2002, pp.347–70.
op. cit. (note 51) no.181; and Bambach, 55 There are some puzzling marks on
op. cit. (note 1), I, pp.165–66. For a copy Verrocchio’s British Museum drawing
after the same design, attributed to between the woman’s head and the
Lorenzo di Credi (private collection), right edge of the sheet, at about the
see E. Villata, ed.: Istituto della height of her left ear. These marks,
Enciclopedia Italiana: Leonardo, Rome apparently not discussed in the
2015, pp.47–48 (no dimensions given). literature, may have been left there
In view of the evidence here discussed accidentally by another drawing but
it is possible that both Leonardo’s and might also belong to the woman’s
Credi’s drawings depend on a now lost elaborate coiffure. In the latter case

15. Study for an Adoration of the shepherds, by Leonardo da

Vinci. Probably late 1470s or early 1480s. Leadpoint partly
reworked with pen and ink and wash, 11.9 by 13.5 cm (irregular).
(Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice; Bridgeman Images).
16. Drapery study of a kneeling woman, by Leonardo da Vinci.
1470s. Silverpoint and white heightening on red prepared paper,
25.7 by 19 cm. (Istituto Nazionale della Grafica, Rome).
left to lower right in at least one of the studies, would have been drawn the pricking there is sometimes surprisingly irregular.63 Nevertheless,
by a left-handed draughtsman. The only plausible candidate for such when examining the original one might perhaps venture to discern an
a draughtsman would be Leonardo, and a drawing by him in Windsor eye, the upper outline of its socket and part of its brow about halfway
Castle (Fig.20)62 exhibits remarkable similarities to the verso of the along the right edge when the sheet is held upside down. To the left of
Palermo sheet. this detail, there are numerous additional spots where one would expect
A technical investigation would probably also help to shed light the nose and the mouth, a handful of very faint spots where the other
on a multitude of spots on the drawing’s verso. The deep blackness of eye would sit, and a few lines further up that could belong to a coiffure
many of these indicates that they consist of charcoal dust, and their or a headdress. All of these might somehow add up to the design of a
sometimes regular alignment suggests that they are spolvero marks. female face of a type familiar from Verrocchio and his workshop,64 yet
It is tantalising but also risky to look for a recognisable shape here, it must be stressed that the interpretation of these spots, some of them
especially as an examination of Verrocchio’s pricked designs shows that very faint, is additionally complicated by the high probability that they
they could document a mechanical Verrocchio’s preparatory drawings Verrocchio and his pupils, notably pp.267–82; Donnithorne, op. cit. (note
transfer technique which may have rather than the finished sculpture, Leonardo da Vinci’s St Jerome, 33), pp.60–69 and pp.78–99; and
involved pouncing (some pounce marks p.32. Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome, for which Mottin, op. cit. (note 34), pp.376–79.
seem to be visible) or a technique 58 Kunsthalle Hamburg, Kupferstich- see Zöllner, op. cit. (note 23), no.IX. When applied lightly, leadpoint does
involving rubbing. kabinett, inv. no.21354 The drawing 61 Cennini, op. cit. (note 29), ch.XII, not necessarily leave an indentation.
56 The contour of the arm and the was placed in Verrocchio’s circle in describes the use of leadpoint on 62 Royal Library, Windsor Castle,
chest continue right to the top edge D. Klemm: Die Sammlungen der unprepared paper (adding that its RCIN912572r, for which see Bambach,
of the sheet. Hamburger Kunsthalle. Kupferstich- trace can be easily erased with bread op. cit. (note 1), I, p.141, who dates it
57 Musée du Louvre, Paris, kabinett (2) – Italienische Zeichnungen crumbs), a technique that was used mid-1470s to 1482–83.
Département des arts graphiques, inv. 1450–1800, Cologne 2009, I, pp.382–83, quite regularly by Leonardo in his early 63 This is particularly true of the
no.RF451 recto, for which see Pisani, no.580, see graphikportal.org/ drawings, among them our Fig.14. sheet in the Galleria degli Uffizi,
op. cit. (note 6), pp.163–64; and document/gpo00124103, accessed 4th Examples for the use of the technique Florence, GDS inv. no.130E, where
Parmiggiani, op. cit. (note 6), no.2.11. February 2020. For the attribution to in Leonardo’s drawings are discussed the pricking of the outlines of the
This and additional drawings inspired Verrocchio, see Melli, op. cit. (note 57), by J. Bescoby and J. Rayner: ‘The visual details such as the nose is surprisingly
by the David, somewhat less similar to p.36; and idem, op. cit. (note 1), no.48. and technical examination of Leonardo haphazard, see Bambach, op. cit.
the study on our sheet, are discussed 59 Scottish National Gallery, drawings in the British Museum’, in (note 1), I, pl.2.47.
in L. Melli: ‘Verrocchio, gli studi per il Edinburgh, inv. no.D642v, for which see M. Menu, ed.: Leonardo da Vinci’s 64 Notably, Musée du Louvre, Paris,
“David” e il disegno del suo tempo’, in Bambach, op. cit. (note 1), I, pp.149–50; Technical Practice. Paintings, Département des arts graphiques, inv.
G. Scherf and C. Hattori, eds: Dessins and Melli, op. cit. (note 1), no.39; both Drawings and Influence, Paris 2014, no.18965, for which see Bambach, op.
de sculpteurs, Paris 2009, II, pp.31–39. authors attribute parts of the drawing pp.222–53 and 254–66, see also the cit. (note 1), I, pp.106–07 and Leonardo’s
Melli rightly suggests that these to Verrocchio. contributions by C. Bambach, pp.222– Munich Madonna, for which see Zöllner,
studies were probably made after 60 The type appears in other works by 53 and A. Donnithorne and J. Russell, op. cit. (note 23), no.III.


Opposite on the lower-right corner of the recto may yet yield clues to its early
17. Verso of Fig.1 in UV-light, revealing two studies of nude male youths provenance. This number almost certainly predates the time when
and a study of the head of an old man. the drawing was glued into the still extant eighteenth-century album
18. Copy after a study for Verrocchio’s ‘David’ and study of a Christ from which it was removed about twenty-five years ago, for it bears no
Child, from the workshop of Francesco di Simone Ferrucci. Later 1480s.
Pen and brown ink and wash over metalpoint on rose-washed paper (page relation to either the sheet’s original position in that volume or to other
of a now dismembered sketchbook), 26 by 19 cm. (Musée du Louvre, Paris; drawings that the album still contains, and must therefore stem from a
RMN-Grand Palais). previous collection. One can only wish for a reference resource for such
19. Study of a male nude, attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio or a marks and numbers – a project that would form a logical extension to
member of his workshop. c.1470. Metalpoint with heightening and pen
and ink on prepared paper, 27.8 by 10.9 cm. (Hamburger Kunsthalle,
Frits Lugt’s great repertory of collectors’ marks.66
Kupferstichkabinett). The drawing is first traceable again in the eighteenth century, when
20. St John the Baptist, by Leonardo da Vinci. c.1480. Metalpoint and it was acquired by the erudite Sicilian cleric Salvadore Maria Di Blasi.
heightening on blue prepared paper, 17.8 by 22.2 cm. (The Royal Library, It may well have been purchased on the occasion of one of Di Blasi’s
Windsor Castle; Royal Collection; © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2020). two excursions in Italy in 1754 and 1775, undertaken in search of items
worthy of his newly founded museum of the Benedictine monastery of
were left on the sheet by accident when its verso came into contact with S. Martino delle Scale near Palermo. In 1869 these collections passed
another piece of paper, such as an auxiliary cartoon, which had been to the Real Museo (later Museo Nazionale) and then to the Galleria
used for the transfer of a design by spolvero and which still retained Regionale della Sicilia at Palazzo Abatellis. Thanks to the unstinting
some of the black dust used in that process. If so, a change in position endeavours of its former director, Vincenzo Abbate, its holdings were
of that paper would have further obfuscated patterns that were already researched in preparation for several remarkable exhibitions that
semi-accidental in nature. presented the institution’s most notable items from the 1990s onwards.67
About three hundred years of darkness shroud the drawing’s Without these efforts, the drawing would probably still lie hidden in its
subsequent history, although a fragment of handwriting along the eighteenth-century album, prompting the thought that, even today, art
top of the verso, perhaps sixteenth century in date,65 and the number history can benefit from systematic explorations of little-known and
‘37’ written in now faded red ink but clearly visible in ultraviolet light insufficiently inventoried collections.
65 This fragment of writing is essentially devoted to stamped drawing has no satisfactory match incrementa pernosceres”: Salvadore
now partly obliterated by the marks, the database includes only in the research material at the Maria di Blasi e il Museo Martiniano’, in
adhesive strip which fixes the sheet inscriptions that recur frequently or Fondation Custodia, Paris. idem, ed.: exh. cat. Wunderkammer
to the mount. are securely attributable to a 67 See, among other exhibitions, Siciliana. Alle origini del museo
66 See www.marquesdecollections.fr, collector. My thanks to Peter Fuhring Abbate, op. cit. (note 3); and idem: perduto, Palermo (Galleria Regionale
accessed 13th February 2020; for verifying that the number on our ‘“Ut mei gazophilacii [. . .] nova della Sicilia) 2001, pp.165–76.

Shorter notices on drawings
Ornament from China: sources Bertin by Jesuit missionaries at the Qing court
in China with whom the minister corresponded
for over twenty years.3 During the 1770s Bertin
for a garden folly design by received up to 345 highly finished watercolour

drawings of vases and other objects that were
Jean-Jacques Lequeu
described in this Jesuit correspondence as ‘vases
anciens’ and ‘vases chinois’. These were bound into
albums both during his lifetime and in the early
nineteenth century.4 This article will discuss
the hitherto unknown correlation between
by kee il choi jr.
Lequeu’s sketches and Bertin’s drawings of ‘vases
chinois’, a connection that sheds light on the
upon arriving in Paris from his native Rouen residence in the domaine de Chatou, northwest convergence of two careers over an unexplored,
in early 1779, and on the recommendation of his of Paris. As Lequeu’s annotations indicate, one unrealised commission for fabriques at Chatou.
mentor, the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot drawing illustrates the roof decoration of a During his career as a statesman, Bertin
(1713–80), the young draughtsman Jean-Jacques Chinese pavilion (‘le pavillon chinois’).2 The other amassed an immense, eclectic collection of
Lequeu (1757–1826) supplied four drawings to three sheets are designs for another fabrique, a Chinese works of art and drawings of Chinese
Henri Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin (1719–93), mechanical game called le jeu de bague. Two are
minister of state to Louis XVI.1 They were highly finished, but the third is a comparatively 1. Details of the ‘jeu de bague chinois’ at
Monceau, by Jean-Jacques Lequeu. c.1780.
designs for fabriques, or follies, intended to adorn rough sketch depicting figures that were derived Ink on paper, 44.8 by 34.9 cm. (Bibliothèque
an English-style garden at the minster’s country from two design drawings that had been sent to nationale de France, Paris).
SNs_MAR20.indd 216 18/02/2020 21:09

2. Design for a ring stand for the ‘jeu de
bague’ at Chatou, by Jean-Jacques Lequeu.
c.1780. Ink, wash and watercolour on paper,
21.9 by 18.2 cm. (Bibliothèque nationale de
France, Paris).
behest in 1749–55.6 Under Amiot’s tutelage

these quasi-official, diplomatic exchanges
of objects and graphic art assumed a pattern
through which Bertin not only satiated his own
intellectual curiosity but also promoted what
he had absorbed about China and the Qianlong
Emperor both at the Bourbon court and within
the republic of letters.7
Bertin’s collection of Chinese drawings
and woodcuts may have been intended to
serve as design models for the royal porcelain
manufactory at Sèvres, the administration of
which was a key part of his ministerial remit from
1767 to 1780.8 At Sèvres, Bertin combined his
deep-seated passion for China with a reformist
agenda that initially entailed revamping the
factory’s industrial base to incorporate the
manufacture of hard-paste porcelain and
extended in the 1770s to the production of
luxurious, ormolu-mounted neoclassical vases
that blended innovative ground colours with
Chinese-style decoration.9 Notably in the mid-
1770s he commissioned a porcelain plaque
and a biscuit figure based on a copy of a Qing
imperial portrait of the Qianlong Emperor that
had been sent to him by Amiot.10 Otherwise no
evidence has yet come to light that any of the
vases chinois drawings were used as models at
the manufactory and only one woodcut from
the Qinding Xiqing gujian, depicting an archaic
bronze hu (wine vessel), has been identified as
the source for a Sèvres porcelain vase.11
In 1762 Bertin acquired the domaine de
Chatou and in 1775 began to build a château, for
which Soufflot designed a nymphaeum, now the
sole extant structure on the site.12 A landscape
garden was planned, in the fashionable anglo-
chinois style, the layout of which was to be
articulated with imaginative follies in the manner
typified by Le Désert de Retz, the garden created
by François Nicolas Henri Racine de Monville in
Chambourcy in 1774–89.13 These included a jeu de
bague, or ‘game of rings’, an early type of carousel
or merry-go-round with medieval antecedents in
jousting.14 A circular platform to which seats or
objects through his Jesuit agents in Peking, Mandarin and Manchu had come to command mounts were fixed was rotated manually either
especially Father Jean Joseph-Marie Amiot the respect of the Qianlong Emperor himself, above ground or from a subterranean chamber.
(1718–93).5 Following the papal suppression of Amiot procured for Bertin – and by extension With each rotation, mounted players sporting
the order in 1774, Amiot henceforth functioned the French state – imperial porcelains, works spears were challenged to skewer rings from
as the chief apologist of the disenfranchised of art, paintings and printed books that were a stand positioned just within their extended
Jesuit mission in Peking, as well as Bertin’s otherwise not commercially available, such reach. The seats or mounts ranged from simple
principal adviser on contemporary China and as the Qinding Xiqing gujian, the woodblock- armchairs to elaborate canapés, in shapes ranging
its ancient history. As a scholar-official at the printed catalogue of the imperial collection from horses to exotic birds, and were invariably
Qing court, where his erudition and fluency in of ancient bronzes complied at the Emperor’s configured in pairs.
SNs_MAR20.indd 217 18/02/2020 21:09

When commissioning his jeu de bague Bertin renowned, the sheet nonetheless presages his 3. Design for the ‘jeu de bague’ at Chatou, by
had clearly been influenced by one designed in precise manner of designing, as exemplified Jean-Jacques Lequeu. c.1780. Pencil on paper,
20.4 by 12.4 cm. (Bibliothèque nationale de
1775 for the duc de Chartres (1747–93) by Louis by ornament drawings for locks and lavatories France, Paris).
Carrogis de Carmontelle (1717–1806) at Parc executed in the mid-1780s.17 A highly finished 4. Design for a ceramic sculpture of the
Monceau, Paris (Fig.1).15 Bertin tasked Lequeu sheet for the ring stand (Fig.2) inscribed ‘[a] Daoist immortal Lü Dongbin. Chinese, c.1770.
to make visual notations of the Monceau Black [man] presents the ring to the one who Ink and watercolour on paper, 24.8 by 24.9
cm. (From Recueil de Vases Antiques. et
design in order to replicate it faithfully at chases it’ (‘Noir qui presente l’anneau à celui qui Piéces [sic], tirés des Cabinets Chinois de
Chatou. As indicated by Lequeu’s annotation, court la bague’) features a richly garbed servant l’Empereur Kien-Long., pl.8; private collection;
‘Details of the jeu de bague Chinois realised in perched precariously on one foot, anticipating photograph by Richard P. Goodbody).
the Chinese garden at Monceau’ (‘Détails du jeu Lequeu’s subtly satirical mature figural style.18 5. Design for a ceramic sculpture of a Daoist
immortal. Chinese, c.1770. Ink and watercolour
de bague Chinois Executé dans le jardin Chinois à le Rough preliminary pencil sketches are on paper, 24.8 by 24.9 cm. (From in Recueil
Monceau’), the sheet furnished a precise record exceptionally rare in Lequeu’s extant œuvre.19 de Vases Antiques. et Piéces [sic], tirés des
of the constituent parts of Carmontelle’s design Since he had already scrupulously studied the Cabinets Chinois de l’Empereur Kien-Long.,
pl.12; private collection; photograph Richard
from all angles, including the dimensions of the jeu de bague at Parc Monceau, it seems that the P. Goodbody).
peacock and eagle-encased seats, as well as three sheet inscribed ‘Pour le jeu de bague de Chatou’
Chinese figures surrounding the axle, the heads (Fig.3) is not an exercise in note taking, but as possible models for elements of the jeu de
of which bobbed as the platform was rotated.16 rather an attempt to capture the essence of bague. These two drawings (Figs.4 and 5) were
Although it lacks the dramatic application two Chinese drawings of vases chinois that probably intended as models for the small-
of shadow for which Lequeu would become Bertin had brought to Lequeu’s attention scale sculptures of minor Asian deities that
SNs_MAR20.indd 218 18/02/2020 21:12

were staples of the European market for early stage as he adapts existing designs to 8 J-B. Breton de la Martinière: La Chine en
miniature, Paris 1811, IV, p.113.
export porcelain and which often featured in invent his own. The discovery of his Chinese 9 V. Bastien: ‘Le goût de la famille royale pour les
sales catalogues and inventories as magots or sources corroborates the fact that Bertin had pièces à décor chinois de la manufacture de Sèvres’,
pagodes, meaning bizarre or grotesque figures received the drawings of the vases chinois from in M-L. de Rochebrune: La Chine à Versailles –
art et diplomatie au XVIIIe siècle, Versailles 2014,
in a Chinese or Japanese style.20 Both were China well before he commended two of them pp.224–47.
described in annotations as Daoist immortals; to Lequeu in 1779. Although evidence of the 10 K. Choi: ‘Portraits of virtue: Henri-Léonard
Bertin, Joseph Amiot and the “Great Man” of
the former is probably Lü Dongbin, the latter, employment of the drawings of vases chinois at China’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic
a female adept, has yet to be identified.21 Both the Sèvres factory remains elusive, Lequeu’s Society 80 (2015–16), pp.49–65.
11 K. Smentek: ‘China and Greco-Roman antiquity:
figures sit on distinctive bases or seats, and as revealing encounter with them manifests the overture to a study of the vase in in eighteenth-
such were probably exported as mirrored pairs, mediating role that Bertin’s ornament from century France’, Journal18.org 1 (2016), http://www.
journal18.org/issue1/china-and-greco-roman-
a standard display practice.22 China was meant to play in the transmission antiquity-overture-to-a-study-of-the-vase-in-
In considering the possible adaptation of authentic designs from one medium – and eighteenth-century-france/, accessed 4th
February 2020.
of these figures for opposing mounts on the from one culture – to another. 12 J-M. Pérouse de Montclos: Jacques-Germain
platform of the jeu de bague – or in the case of Soufflot, Paris 2004, p.17, figs.10–12 and p.135.
This article has benefited from the thoughtful 13 V. Royet, ed.: George Louis Le Rouge: Jardins
Lü Dongbin as part of the ring stand – Lequeu comments of Femke Speelberg and John Finlay, anglo-chinois, Paris 2004, pp.193–201; and D.
converted them from three-quarter to full profile who kindly scrutinised an earlier draft. Ketcham: Le Désert de Retz: A late Eighteenth
and framed them as complementary, triangular 1 P. Duboy: Lequeu: An Architectural Enigma, Century Folly Garden: The Artful Landscape of
Cambridge MA 1986, p.360; and L. Baridon et al.: Monsieur de Monville, Cambridge, MA, 1994,
compositions. Although difficult to decipher, exh. cat: Jean-Jacques Lequeu: bâtissseurs de pp.22–23, and 29–35, figs.4–12. R. Rosenblum:
the sheet is annotated with dimensions, fantasmes, Paris (Petit Palais) 2018–19, p.155. Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century
2 Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Departe- Art, Princeton 1969, pp.115–16.
indicating that Lequeu was considering their ment d’Estampes et photographie, magasin de la 14 L. Clare: La quintaine, la course de bague et le
spatial relationship. He also transformed Lü Réserve HA 80 (D)-FOL; see also Duboy, op. cit. jeu des têtes: étude historique et ethno-linguistique
(note 1), p.339. For Bertin’s Chinese house, see d’une famille de jeux équestres, Paris 1983.
Dongbin into a woman, presumably to mirror J. Finlay: Henri Bertin and the Representation of 15 A. Heitzmann: ‘Le jeu de bague de Trianon’, in
the female Daoist immortal. Pairings of seats China in Eighteenth-Century France, New York De Rochebrune, op. cit. (note 9), pp.258–69.
(forthcoming). 16 On the verso there are detailed notes about
with distinctive themes for men and women 3 J. Silvestre de Sacy: Henri Bertin dans la sillage the structure of the platform and seats.
were a feature of the jeu de bague, as exemplified de la Chine, Paris 1970. 17 Baridon, op. cit. (note 1), pp.73 and 181, nos.34
4 K. Choi: ‘Ancien vs. antique: Henri-Léonard Bertin’s and 37.
by the one made in 1776 for Marie Antoinette’s drawings of the Qianlong emperor’s “vases chinois”’, 18 M. Myers: French Architectural and Ornament
Petit Trianon at Versailles, the design of which Journal18.org 6 (2018), http://www.journal18.org/is- Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York
was also influenced by that at Monceau. Two sue6/ancien-vs-antique-henri-leonard-bertins-al- 1991, pp.110–11, no.67.
bums-of-the-qianlong-emperors-vases-chinois/, 19 Baridon, op. cit. (note 1), pp.178–79.
pairs of gilt-wood seats in the form of dragons accessed 4th February 2020. 20 D. Kisluk-Grosheide: ‘The reign of magots
for the men and of peacocks for the women 5 M. Hermans: ‘Joseph-Marie Amiot – une figure and pagodes’, The Metropolitan Museum Journal
de la rencontre de “l’autre” au temps des lumières’, 37 (2002), pp.177–97.
could be interchanged to suit the number in Y. Lenoir and N. Standaert, eds: Les danses 21 [H-L. Bertin]: Recueil de Vases Antiques. et
of couples playing the game at one time. At rituelles chinoises d’après Joseph-Marie Amiot, Piéces [sic], tirés des Cabinets Chinois de l’Empereur
Brussels 2005, pp.11–77. Kien-Long, c.1780 (private collection), pl.8 is
Monceau, Versailles and latterly at Chatou – 6 M. Cohen et al.: exh. cat. Impressions de Chine, Paris annotated ‘Immortel des Tao Sée d’une seule Pierre’
if only on paper – thematically differentiated (Bibliothèque nationale de France) 1992, p.141, no.86; and pl.12 ‘Immortelle de Tao Sée d’une seule Pierre’;
and C. Bienaimé: ‘Bertin’s Chinese collection: from cu- for the identification of Lü Dongbin, see S. Little et
seats were created to enhance the players’ riosity to knowledge’, in S. Bracken et al., eds: Collecting al.: exh. cat. Daoism and the Arts of China, Chicago
experience of the jeu de bague Chinois. East and West, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2013, pp.137–46. (Art Institute) 2000, pp.324–27, nos.120 and 121.
7 C-Y. Lee: Visions de l’empire du milieu au 18e siècle 22 W. Sargent: The Copeland Collection: Chinese
Lequeu’s rare rough sketch offers a en France: illustrations des Mémoires concernant les and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem 1991,
remarkable glimpse into his practice at an Chinois 1776–1791, Louvain-la-Neuve 2016. pp.124–27, no.57.
A continuous line in Boccioni known drawing, was found in time for its
correct location to be noted in the most recent
edition of the Boccioni catalogue raisonné.2
drawings at the Metropolitan Notably, this volume is arranged thematically,

with Futurism treated as a separate category.3
Museum of Art, New York

The rediscovered Metropolitan drawings
emphasise that in his Futurist compositions
Boccioni was returning to forms of stylisation,
poses and locations he had used previously.
The most striking of the works is the
by rosalind mckever
graphite study (Fig.6) for Female figure (Fig.7),
dated 1911 and signed ‘U.B.’4 The pin holes in
continuity in the career of Umberto Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the sheet’s four corners and splashes of orange,
Boccioni (1882–1916), before and after his the largest repository of the artist’s work blue, red and green paint suggest that Boccioni
allegiance to the Futurist movement in early outside Italy.1 They were bequeathed to the referred to this study while working on his
1910, is most apparent in his drawings. This Museum by Lydia Winston Malbin following painting. The date is supported by the fact
has been underlined by the rediscovery in its 1988 Boccioni retrospective, but were not that the study appears on the verso of a known
2016 of three drawings and a print, and the accessioned, and their whereabouts were drawing (Fig.8) for The farewells, a canvas
re-cataloguing of a fourth drawing, at the unknown to scholars. One, the verso of a from Boccioni’s first version of the triptych
SNs_MAR20.indd 219 18/02/2020 21:14

trip to Paris in October 1911. As well as visiting

his fellow Futurist Gino Severini, who lived in
the same building as Georges Braque, Boccioni
wanted to familiarise himself with Cubism. The
trip was in response to Ardengo Soffici’s strong
criticism of the Futurist exhibition in Milan
in April 1911,9 which ridiculed the Italians’
ignorance of developments in Paris, and in
anticipation of the first Futurist exhibition
in Paris in February 1912 at the Galerie
Bernheim-Jeune. Female figure predates the
1911 Paris visit, after which Boccioni produced
a second version of the States of mind triptych
(late 1911; Museum of Modern Art, New York),
which shows Cubism’s sharp planar lines and
typographical elements.10
Maurizio Calvesi, publishing Study for
‘Female figure’ for the first time in 1958, argued
that it was influenced by the Cubist paintings
reproduced in Roger Allard’s article in Marches
du Sud-Ouest of June 1911, which circulated
among the Futurist milieu: Nudes in the forest,
by Fernand Léger (Kröller-Müller Museum,
Otterlo); Nude, by Albert Gleizes (location
unknown); and Eiffel Tower, by Robert Delaunay
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New
York).11 The connection between the bracketing
buildings of the latter and the background of
Boccioni’s Female figure is clear, yet neither of
the two cubist figure studies provides a model
for the sharp geometric sfaccettatura employed
in the drawing. Nor do the textual descriptions
of Cubism at Boccioni’s disposal in the summer
of 1911 account for this drawing’s stylisation. In
addition to the Allard article, the artist had
access to Soffici’s unillustrated essay on Picasso
and Braque from the Italian journal La Voce, and
Severini’s unpublished sixty-page analysis of the
latest developments in Paris.12 Of these, Soffici’s
account of Picasso’s work is the most visually
6. Study for ‘Female figure’, by Umberto here Boccioni takes great pains in modelling the descriptive, but does not offer a manual for
Boccioni. 1911. Graphite on paper, 61 by 48.6 head, deconstructing its features into geometric emulating the aforementioned studies.
cm. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
segments that are defined with increasingly Another rediscovered drawing from
States of mind (May–October 1911; Museo del insistent graphite lines. The shading of the around 1908 to 1909, Seated woman (Fig.10),
Novecento, Milan). This vaporous scene of cavity of her left eye and careful hatching of shows that Boccioni did not need instruction.
embracing couples at a train station expands to the cheek below corresponds to those areas Ester Coen has argued that the autumn 1911
fill the recto, its sinuous graphite lines flowing modelled with purple tones in the painting. Paris trip was an opportunity for Boccioni
into the smoky background, in contrast to the This stylisation led the scholars who to put his own ideas to the test rather than
sharply delineated figure overleaf.5 last examined the drawing to connect it with appropriate from the Cubists; this holds
In Study for ‘Female figure’, a woman, most Cubism. In the catalogue that accompanied true for his engagement with Paris through
likely the artist’s lover Ines, stands with her the Museum of Modern Art’s 1961 exhibition journals and reports in the summer of 1911,
hands behind her back.6 Perpendicular lines of Boccioni’s graphic work, Joshua C. Taylor before his visit.13 The earlier drawing makes
suggest a balcony rail and the buildings in the concluded that the work ‘clearly indicates that evident that Boccioni was experimenting with
painting’s background. Throughout his career Boccioni had now seen reproductions of recent multi-dimensional approaches to the figure
Boccioni depicted women on balconies and cubist painting’.8 It is tempting to compare contemporaneously with artists in Paris, and
next to windows. He was fascinated by the Boccioni’s drawing with Picasso’s early cubist years before his awareness of Cubism.14 In
challenge of painting rays of light – rendered portrait studies, such as those of Fernande this drawing, a woman (the artist’s sister) sits
in this drawing with loose diagonal strokes – Olivier made in 1909. However, Boccioni saw on an unseen chair. Her blouse, hair, and to
which ‘destroy the materiality of bodies’.7 Yet the Spaniard’s work for the first time only on his some extent her face, are modelled in blocky
SNs_MAR20.indd 220 18/02/2020 21:14

geometric forms. The left-hand side of her face is in the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Arnone, with the poses of several figures and horses.
is in shadow, the vigorous hatching merging Cosenza.16 Underneath and unrelated to the In 1910 Boccioni was living in Milan, but
with the silhouette cast against the wall. figure on the verso of the Metropolitan sheet, the perfunctory background depicts Rome,
The early dating of this sheet is supported there is a neatly drawn rectangle bisected specifically the area around Piazza del Popolo,
by its similarity to other drawings from 1908,15 near the bottom, but this offers no further which Boccioni drew when training in Balla’s
and by the sketch of a male figure on its verso indication of dating as this format is unknown studio, in 1901–04.18 The crowded bridge on the
(Fig.11). The nude likely comes from a series of in Boccioni’s painted œuvre. left – jaggedly delineated, with Boccioni barely
life drawing and anatomical exercises Boccioni The third rediscovered sheet demonstrates lifting pencil from paper – is the ponte Regina
undertook between 1908 and 1910. This date is that Boccioni was revisiting locations from Margherita (constructed 1886–91), which
also given to two similar nudes with anatomical earlier in his career.17 This loose pencil sketch crosses the Tiber between Piazza del Popolo and
studies of hands on their versos, one of which (Fig.13) is the earliest known compositional Piazza della Libertà.19 The crenellations in the
sketch for his largest painting, The city rises centre and triumphal arch at right (viewed from
7. Female figure, by Umberto Boccioni. 1911.
Oil on canvas, 135 by 93 cm. (Museo del (1910; Museum of Modern Art, New York). an oblique angle) can be identified as those of
Novecento, Milan; Bridgeman Images). In the foreground Boccioni experiments the Porta del Popolo and the adjacent section of
the Aurelian wall. Boccioni’s choice of location
may seem at odds with Futurism’s rhetoric
against cultural heritage, but in 1910 this area
of the city had more modern connotations, as it
was the gateway to the Esposizione Universale
of 1911.20 The exposition celebrated fifty years
of Italian unity and resulted in the numerous
building projects that contributed to the artist’s
image of the rising city.
Continuity between Boccioni’s pre-
Futurist and Futurist drawings is further
emphasised by the re-cataloguing of another
study (Fig.12).21 This stylised image of a
distressed face with flowing hair was previously
related to the grieving women at the centre
of Mourning (1910; private collection), but the
prominent hand over the forehead marks it out
as a preparatory sketch for an earlier painting,
The dream – Paolo and Francesca (Fig.9). In its
stylisation, technique and wide format, it is
similar to the other sketches for the painting.22
Boccioni returned to these anguished faces in
late 1910 when painting Mourning, showing no
qualms about returning to earlier poses to add
heavy psychological charge to a Futurist work.
The drawing was catalogued as Studio per ‘il
sogno’ in 1958 in the Archivi del futurismo,23 which
listed the collection of the artist’s sister Raffaella
Amelia Boccioni Callegari (known as Amelia
Boccioni before her marriage, and subsequently
as Raffaella Callegari). This included the two-
hundred drawings that Callegari sold to Lydia
and Harry Winston in two tranches in 1956 and
1958. In a 1960 catalogue, the drawing was called
Study for ‘Mourning’.24
In 1988 Lydia Winston (by then Lydia
Winston Malbin) lent her collection of
Boccioni paintings, sculptures and works on
paper, including the rediscovered sheets, to
the Metropolitan’s retrospective, and in 1989
bequeathed them to the museum.25 Before 1984
she had kept her Boccioni works on paper on
deposit at MoMA – hence their cataloguing
as such in the 1983 catalogue raisonné – but
MoMA knew from the outset that they might be
SNs_MAR20.indd 221 18/02/2020 21:15

8. Study for ‘States of mind: The farewells’,

by Umberto Boccioni. 1911. Graphite on paper,
48.6 by 61 cm. (Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York).
9. The dream – Paolo and Francesca, by
Umberto Boccioni. 1908–09. Oil on canvas,
140 by 130 cm. (Private collection).
Opposite
10. Seated woman, by Umberto Boccioni.
c.1908–9. Graphite on paper, 38.1 by 26 cm.
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
11. Seated male nude, by Umberto Boccioni.
c.1908–09. Graphite on paper, 38.1 by 26 cm.
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
12. Study for ‘The dream – Paolo and
Francesca’, by Umberto Boccioni. 1908–10.
Graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, and wash
on paper, 23.2 by 46.7 cm. (Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York).
donated elsewhere.26 William S. Lieberman was

the founding director of MoMA’s department
of drawings in 1971, but in 1979 he became Chair
of the Department of Twentieth-Century Art
(now named Modern and Contemporary Art) at
the Metropolitan Museum. Lieberman decided
that the Metropolitan should not accession the
two drawings and print. In an internal memo of
10th January 1990, he cites a wish to exchange
them for Boccioni ink drawings in a Symbolist
style to ensure the bequest more broadly
reflected the artist’s œuvre.27 This exchange
never occurred, nor did an accession, so the
three sheets remained stored with the others.
These drawings blur the often artificially
neat divisions between the different periods
of Boccioni’s career. His interest in the figure
in its mental and physical environments is
consistent across the anatomical, Symbolist
and cubist tendencies that contributed to his
Futurist aesthetic, lending an appropriate
sense of simultaneity to his short career. Their
rediscovery at the Metropolitan Museum is
the latest chapter in the artist’s fluctuating
posthumous fate.28
This research was made possible by a Jane and Mor-
gan Whitney Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art (2015–16). I thank the Department of Paper
Conservation, particularly Johanna Ziegler, Andrew
W. Mellon Conservation Fellow (2015–16), for her in-
valuable assistance studying these works, and col-
leagues in the Department of Modern and Contempo-
rary Art, namely Kay Bearman, Catherine Burns,
Mary Chan, Cynthia Iavarone, Anne Monahan, Sandie
Peters and Sabine Rewald.
1 Following their rediscovery by the present author,
the drawings and the print were catalogued, photo-
graphed, accessioned and retrospectively given the
inventory numbers cited in this article. CC and CD
are used respectively throughout the present article
to indicate the 1983 and 2016 catalogues cited at
note 2. The rediscovered print was a lifetime impres-
sion of Man lying in a field, by Umberto Boccioni. 1907.
Etching and drypoint, 14.9 by 23.5 cm. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, inv. no.1990.38.45; CC 270;
CD 254; P. Bellini: Umberto Boccioni: catalogo ra-
gionato delle incisioni, degli ex libris, dei manifesti e
delle illustrazioni, Cinisello Balsamo 2004, pp.48–51
and 194.
SNs_MAR20.indd 222 18/02/2020 21:17

SNs_MAR20.indd 223 18/02/2020 21:19

2 M. Calvesi, A. Dambruoso and S. De Chiara: pp.32–33, at p.32. On Ines, see G. Agnese: Vita di Gleizes Catalogue Raisonné, Paris 1998.
Boccioni: Catalogo generale, Turin 2016. See the Boccioni, Florence 1996, pp.47–54. 12 Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, Umberto
earlier edition: M. Calvesi and E. Coen: Boccioni: 7 U. Boccioni, C. Carrà, L. Russolo, G. Balla and G. Seve- Boccioni papers, 880380, box 3, folder 14. The analysis
L’opera completa, Milan 1983. rini: ‘Futurist painting: technical manifesto’, in L. Rainey, is in the hand of Decio Cinti (Filippo Tommaso
3 On this decision, see M.E. Versari: ‘The centenary of C. Poggi and L. Wittman, eds: Futurism: An Anthology, Marinetti’s secretary), see M.E. Versari: ‘Introduction’,
Umberto Boccioni’s death in 1916: a commemorative New Haven and London 2009, pp.64–67, at p.66. in U. Boccioni: Futurist Painting Sculpture (Plastic
exhibition and some new publications’, International 8 J.C. Taylor: exh. cat. The Graphic Work of Umberto Dynamism), transl. R.S. Agin and M.E. Versari, Los
Yearbook of Futurism Studies 8 (2018), pp.395–405. Boccioni, New York (Museum of Modern Art) 1961, n.p. Angeles 2016, p.272, no.190. I thank M.E. Versari for
4 Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no.1990.38.22b; 9 A. Soffici: ‘Arte libera e pittura futurista’, La Voce 3, her advice on this discussion. A. Soffici: ‘Picasso e
CC 714; CD 684. no.25 (22nd June 1911), p.597. Braque’, La Voce 3, no.34 (24th August 1911), pp.635–
5 Museo del Novocento, Milan, inv. no.1990.38.22a; 10 G. Severini: La vita di un pittore, Milan 2008, p.90. 37, esp. p.636.
CC 726; CD 656. 11 M. Calvesi: ‘Il Futurismo di Boccioni: formazione e 13 E. Coen: exh. cat. Boccioni, New York (Metropolitan
6 Ines, surname unknown, was still in Boccioni’s life in tempi’, Le due avanguardie, Milan 1966, pp.52–80, at Museum of Art) 1988, p.xlii.
late 1911, ‘La Ines mi tormenta a periodi nella pp.70–71. Calvesi’s text, first published in Arte antica 14 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv.
fantasia’, letter from Umberto Boccioni to Gino e moderna 2 (April–June 1958), pp.148–69, is no.1990.38.43ab; recto CC 513; CD 1072; verso
Severini, before 23rd December 1911, repr. in F. Rovati: republished in CD as ‘Primi contatti con il Cubismo. CC 521; CD 1089.
Umberto Boccioni: Lettere futuriste, Rovereto 2009, Gli Stati d’animo’, pp.117–29. R. Allard: ‘Sur quelques 15 CD 327–35.
peintres’, Marches du Sud-Ouest (1st June 1911), 16 CD 1088 and 1090.
13. Study for ‘The city rises’, by Umberto pp.58–60. Gleizes’ Nude, which is reproduced by 17 Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no.1990.38.44;
Boccioni. 1910. Graphite on paper, 14 by 21 cm. Calvesi, is absent from the Gleizes catalogue raisonné, CC 676; CD 610.
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). see D. Robbins, P. Georgel and A. Varichon: Albert 18 CD 86–87.
19 CD, p.418.
20 On the nuance of Futurism’s relationship with
Italy’s ancient and recent history, see R. McKever:
‘Futurism and the past: temporalities, avant-gardism
and tradition in Italian art and its histories 1909–1919’,
unpublished PhD diss. (Kingston University 2012), p.34.
21 Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no.1990.38.15; CC
651; CD 626. I thank Angelo Calmarini for his invaluable
insights.
22 CD 560–63.
23 M. Drudi Gambillo and T. Fiori: Archivi del
futurismo, Rome 1958, I, p.416.
24 J.T. Soby: Arte italiana del XX secolo da collezioni
americane, Milan (Palazzo Reale) 1960, no.26. This
change was reflected in the second volume of the
Archivi, M. Drudi Gambillo and T. Fiori: Archivi del
futurismo, Rome 1962, II, p.262.
25 Coen, op. cit. (note 16), nos.47A, 47B, 48B, 51H and
56D. On the fate of the rest of the Winston Malbin
collection, see C.F. Bilotti: ‘Brevi note sulle vicende
della collezione Winston Malbin’, in N. Mari, ed.:
Umberto Boccioni: disegni e incisioni della Galleria
nazionale di Cosenza, Cinisello Balsamo 2003, p.27.
26 Letter from Alfred H. Barr to Lydia Winston, 7th
July 1965, Lydia Winston Malbin Papers, Yale Collection
of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library, New Haven, box 41, folder 599.
27 W.S. Lieberman, internal memo, 10th January
1990, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art Modern
and Contemporary Art Department, object file
1990.38.1.
28 On Boccioni’s posthumous reputation, see
R. McKever: ‘Frozen in the future’, Apollo (July–
Rediscovered drawings by Erwin This image, a quintessentially modernist

representation of the body, is one of nine such
sheets by the Austrian artist Erwin Dominik
Dominik Osen Osen (1891–1970) acquired last year by the

Leopold Museum, Vienna. They were recently
discovered by the grandchildren of their
original owner, Stefan Jellinek (1871–1968), a
by gemma blackshaw physician working in Vienna who specialised in
the effects of electrical currents on the body, and
a young man’s trousers have been removed sense of his subjectivity. The man’s jacket who placed his knowledge of electropathology
(Fig.14). He stares at us as we stare at what divides the face that signifies the self from at the service of the Austro-Hungarian army
has been exposed: his thin and twisted legs, the body we scrutinise. The jacket’s form and with the outbreak of the First World War. The
his clenched, clawed toes. This is an awkward folds are delineated in the faintest of pencil drawings were completed in 1915 at a location
body, a body that cannot stand without overpainted in the thinnest of watercolour, a identified by Osen on each sheet as ‘Garni-
support, a body with tendons and ligaments mere half-shade lighter than the surrounding Spit’, an abbreviation of ‘Garnisonsspital’, the
that turn and clamp of their own disobedient paper; barely discernible, the torso comprises Second Military Hospital on the Rennweg and
accord. The estrangement of the self from a negative space at the off-centre of the sheet, one of the largest in Vienna. They may well be
the body it cannot master is expressed in a deliberate undoing of the coherency of the studies of patients within the hospital’s Centre
the tender detail of the man’s face, in the human figure that is so fundamental to the for Neurology, overseen by Jellinek, where he
irises and eyelashes that convey an absolute principles of life-drawing. conducted research on the use of electricity on
SNs_MAR20.indd 224 18/02/2020 21:21

soldiers to treat the symptoms of what would of whom were Academy classmates who had this period, the thinness of his frame and
now be described as post-traumatic stress progressed alongside each other from the study theatricality of his gestures in many ways
disorder (PTSD).1 of anatomy to portraiture, and who posed for driving the figurative style for which Schiele
The images are harrowing: men with one another in their private time. The two is so celebrated (Fig.16). They continued to
cranial deformities; men with facial collapse; aspiring artists developed an especially close support each other in 1912 when Schiele moved
naked, scratching, grimacing men with arms working relationship in the summer of 1910 into Osen’s studio in Vienna after his release
held tightly across their chests in a bid to keep when they painted alongside one another in from a brief imprisonment in Neulengbach
themselves together. They stand or sit entirely Krumau (Český Krumlov), a town in what is
alone, separated from others in order to be now the Czech Republic, some 200 kilometres 14. Portrait of a patient, by Erwin
Dominik Osen. 1915. Graphite and
examined face-on, side-on, from above, or from to the north-west of Vienna. Osen served watercolour on paper, 56.7 by 39.8 cm.
below (Fig.15). All but one are on commercially as Schiele’s primary life model throughout (Leopold Museum, Vienna).
made wove paper, a non-textured, non-
absorbent, reflective surface that resists the pale
washes of watercolour Osen used over graphite.
Pin marks in the corners of each equally sized
sheet suggest the drawings were realised on a
wooden board.
It is not known why Jellinek kept the
drawings. On being deprived of his post as
Professor of Electro-Pathology at the University
of Vienna after the Anschluss of 1938, Jellinek
took them with him when he fled with his
family in 1939 to Oxford, where he worked at
Queen’s College, and then to Edinburgh in
1966, when he moved to be near his youngest
son. After Jellinek’s death in 1968 they were kept
in a folder in the attic of his son’s house until
the property was sold in 2018. Their discovery
is significant, expanding our understanding of
modernist figuration in early twentieth-century
Vienna by underlining its entanglement with
the cultures and regimes of clinical medicine.
Osen, who worked across Germany and
Austria-Hungary as a film and theatre director,
painter, photographer and performer, is not a
well-known figure. His paintings, completed
over several decades, are eclectic in style and
esoteric in subject-matter; difficult, in other
words, to include in histories of modern
European art. When he does appear in the
scholarship on ‘Vienna 1900’, the city in which
he spent his childhood and formative years, it is
as a character in studies of the life and work of
his close friend and contemporary Egon Schiele
(1890–1918). The biographical information
provided in these accounts is based upon an
article in the Bundesarchiv Sammlung, Berlin,
which cannot now be traced. Clearly based on
an interview with Osen, it is highly unreliable.
Osen claimed, for example, that he attended
the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, but his name
does not appear in its register. He did, however,
receive private tuition from Professor Christian
Griepenkerl (1839–1912), who also taught Schiele.
Osen is likely to have met Schiele at some
point during the latter’s time at the Academy,
between 1906 and 1909.2 Osen and Schiele were
members of the Neukunstgruppe of 1909, an
affiliation of like-minded artist friends, many
SNs_MAR20.indd 225 18/02/2020 21:22

on a charge of displaying obscene drawings continued nevertheless. In 1913 Osen wrote to Osen’s drawings were a commission. Adolf
in a place accessible to children, although Schiele asking to use his studio as a temporary Kronfeld (1861–1938), physician and editor of the
the shared space would become a source of base before heading off to work in Prague and Viennese Medical Weekly (from 1909) with a long-
conflict. Arthur Roessler, Schiele’s supporter, Berlin so that he might finish off a portrait (‘in standing interest in representations of illness
claimed Osen was a plagiarist, signing his name the entrance hall, the toilet, or anywhere else in the history of art, had requested a series of
on Schiele’s discarded drawings and selling in your sacred castle’) as well as some drawings drawings of psychiatric patients to accompany
them on as his own work.3 Their friendship of patients at Steinhof, Vienna’s vast psychiatric a lecture he was giving at Steinhof on what
hospital designed by the modernist architect Osen described as ‘pathological expression in
15. Portrait of a patient, by Erwin Dominik
Osen. 1915. Graphite and watercolour on paper, Otto Wagner, which had opened to great portraiture’.5 Three of these Steinhof drawings
48.3 by 32 cm. (Leopold Museum, Vienna). acclaim in 1907.4 were discovered in the course of the present
author’s research into the multifarious
connections between psychiatry and the visual
arts in Vienna and the wider Habsburg empire
between 1890 and 1914. Two were included in
the resulting exhibition, Madness and Modernity:
Mental Illness and the Visual Arts in Vienna 1900
at the Wellcome Collection, London, and
the Wien Museum, Vienna, in 2009–10.6 The
drawings did far more than substantiate Osen’s
1913 letter to Schiele. They provided further
evidence of the ways in which doctors, artists
and patients in early twentieth-century Vienna
not only encountered but, more meaningfully,
engaged with one another, often purposefully
seeking one another out; evidence that was all
the more compelling for comprising remarkable
works of art that may well have been studied
in Schiele’s studio by the artists, their friends
and patrons. Kronfeld is known to have been
a minor collector of Schiele’s drawings, as, we
should note, were many doctors.7 The nine
newly discovered sheets enable us to ponder
the affinities between modernist artists and
physicians in the city at this moment and
the complexities of their relations. Why, for
example, did Kronfeld invite Osen to work at
Steinhof rather than Schiele? If he had asked
Schiele instead, we might well imagine a
different history of modern Viennese art, more
attuned to the ways in which the modern lives
and bodies depicted by artists were inextricably
bound up with medicine.
Medicalisation was one of the defining
experiences of modernity and from the
middle of the nineteenth century Vienna was
to be Europe’s capital of clinical medicine.
Vienna provides a particularly rich example
of the extent to which medical knowledge,
care, prevention and intervention affected
the formulation of modern identities and
subjectivities. Medicine, however, plays a
minor role in the history of modern Viennese
art, despite artists’ fascination with the bodies
it sought to heal. The discovery of further
drawings of patients by Osen is an invitation
to revise this history, entangling it with the
medical cultures and regimes that brought the
modern body into being, defining it while, at
the same time, circumscribing it.
SNs_MAR20.indd 226 18/02/2020 21:22

pregnant body, from the types of seemingly

unmediated works a doctor might use to
accompany a lecture, as Kronfeld had requested
of Osen. Artists’ images of patients, which were
often generated alongside photographs, were
valued by doctors for capturing something
more elusive about the subject under scrutiny
than the mechanical eye of the camera, but
there were limits to the representation of such
looking, such gazing, identifying, desiring
and fetishising. Schiele tested these limits,
producing works of art that questioned the
neutralities, authorities and orthodoxies of
gynaecological and obstetric medicine. Such
was the risk in working with a modernist. Was
Osen any less of one?
Osen’s drawings of distressed, disfigured
and deformed men comprise an important new
context for thinking about Schiele’s work. This
is undoubtedly significant, but it would do
Osen a disservice to leave the research at this.
He was a different modernist with a different
line, and we might interpret the time he took to
delineate each dark tuft and swirl of a soldier’s
body hair and each eyelash as a markedly more
attentive and empathic mode of representation
than that achieved by Schiele in the Women’s
Clinic. Such details, achieved through the use
of a small, dry brush on a body outlined in the
faintest of pencil, are tiny alleviations of the
relentlessness of life as a medicalised subject;
mark-making as a form of care, deserving of
our attention.
1 H.-G. Hofer et al.: Achtung Strom: Stefan Jellinek und

das Elektropathologische Museum, Vienna 2013, p.66.
2 On the mythologised accounts of Osen’s early years
and the historical record, see G. Wagensommerer:
‘Erwin Dominik Johann Osen’, Egon Schiele Jahrbuch,
IV–VIII, Vienna 2014–18, pp.218–45.
3 A. Roessler: Briefe und Prosa von Egon Schiele,
Vienna 1921, pp.69–70. Roessler elaborated on the claim
in an essay: ‘Begegnung mit dem Abenteurer’ [‘Encoun-
ter with the adventurer’], in F. Karpfen, ed.: Das Egon
Schiele Buch, Vienna and Leipzig 1921, pp.73–80, repr. in
A. Roessler: Errinerungen an Egon Schiele: Marginalien
zur Geschichte des Menschentums eines Künstl, Vienna
and Leipzig 1922, pp.39–44. Osen was successful in
bringing a lawsuit against Roessler, who was compelled
to remove the text from the second, revised edition of
Erinnerungen, which appeared in 1948. The chapter
relating to Osen appears in the table of contents of the
1948 edition only.
4 ‘möchtest Du mir erlauben, das ich im Vorzimmer,
16. Erwin Dominik Osen, nude with crossed a visit likely to have been arranged by Erwin am Clos oder wo in Deiner Gotterburg, das Ungeheuer
arms, by Egon Schiele. 1910. Black chalk, von Graff (1878–1952), a surgeon specialising in porträtiere’, letter from Erwin Dominik Osen to Egon
watercolour and gouache on paper, 44.7 by Schiele, 15th August 1913, Egon Schiele Autograph Da-
31.5 cm. (Leopold Museum, Vienna; photograph the field of gynaecology, who also knew Osen. tabase, Albertina, Vienna, inv. no.ESA139.
Manfred Thumberger). Intent on representing the body in extremis, 5 ‘pathologieschen Ausdruck im Porträt’, ibid.
6 For an account of the discovery of Osen’s
Schiele embraced the formal possibilities in Steinhof drawings, see G. Blackshaw: ‘The pathologi-
Osen was one of many modernists working drawing heavily pregnant women, their near- cal body: modernist strategising in Egon Schiele’s
self-portraiture’, Oxford Art Journal 30, no.3 (2007),
for medical professionals and within medical naked bodies stretched to the most massive pp.377–401; and idem: ‘“Crazier than I am, or crazier
spaces. Schiele was another: in 1910, the year of proportions, raised up and opened out on than I look?” Self-portraits by Egon Schiele’, Tate
Etc. 43 (2018), pp.2–9.
of his departure from Vienna to work with the clinical apparatus he utilised and then, in 7 Schiele lists Adolf Kronfeld as a collector of his draw-
Osen in Krumau, Schiele drew a series of characteristically modernist fashion, erased. ings in an inventory in a private collection in the United
States, Egon Schiele Datenbank der Autografen, ID:
patients at the Second Women’s Clinic within The resultant works are very far removed from 2644, http://www.schiele-dokumentation.at/objekt.
the University of Vienna’s General Hospital, contemporaneous, diagrammatic images of the php?id=2644, accessed 28th June 2019.
SNs_MAR20.indd 227 18/02/2020 21:23

Recent Arte Povera exhibitions
in Italy
Retrospectives of four artists associated with Arte Povera, Jannis Kounellis, Pino Pascali,
Emilio Prini and Marisa Merz, have emphasised the movement’s diversity and help to
explain its continuing relevance to contemporary art.
by martin holman
M
ore than half a century after the critic association mostly underlines their essential differences: the utopian
Germano Celant organised the exhibition Arte vision of Mario Merz (1925–2003) was distinct from (although not at
Povera – Im Spazio at Galleria La Bertesca in Genoa odds with) the mythologising inclination of Alighiero Boetti (1940–94),
in September 1967, a series of exhibitions in Italy for instance, or the ironic undertow animating the work of Luciano
last year has testified to the enduring interest in Fabro (1936–2000). The importance of these artists relies as much on
this loosely affiliated group. By 1971, and after those specifics as on an expanded vocabulary of material effects, many
subsequent group shows in Bologna, Amalfi and Munich had added unprecedented in the context of studio or gallery.
names to the original roster of exhibitors, the list of artists most closely When Jannis Kounellis (1936–2017) was asked in 1979 by the
associated with Arte Povera settled at thirteen protagonists, even though New Zealand painter Robin White if European artists looked back
its principles were shared by other artists of similar ages in Italy.1 Celant to earlier work – both their own and the accumulation of art history
never claimed that Arte Povera reflected a common programme among – while their American contemporaries concentrated ‘on whatever is
its artists. The often-repeated emphasis on humble, mundane materials new’, Kounellis replied that ‘European artists have a particular way of
is clearly insufficient to link them: Celant himself identified Arte Povera considering the past and use it as their lifeblood’.3 White had in mind
as a ‘a poor art concerned with contingency, events, ahistoricism, the Kounellis’s Untitled (1969), in which Kounellis stabled twelve horses in
present’.2 Survey exhibitions from the 1980s onwards, many organised the underground space of Galleria L’Attico, Rome, representing a link
by Celant, constructed a historiography of Arte Povera that stressed its with the equestrian statuary of Antiquity and the heroic painting of
conceptual character. Radical politics, however, were formative to the later art history. The artist recreated the installation for the Venice
group: the artists’ return to cultural basics and questioning of authority Biennale in 1976. But Kounellis’s comment had a broader relevance,
and institutional conventions were responses to the volatile state of in that throughout his career he avoided the entropy that can afflict a
social and economic change in Italy in the late 1960s. This context now work of art caught in one time and space by revisiting it in response to
appears less central to its ongoing appeal and valency, a casualty of time new exhibition spaces, in shows that he personally coordinated. This
and altered circumstances in a heterogeneous art world shaped, on the relates to the site-specific work of Gilberto Zorio (b.1944), who, like
one hand, by the market that Arte Povera initially existed to challenge Kounellis, also employs fire, sound, elevated sightlines and recurrent
and, on the other, by artists who, when politically engaged, direct their motifs. But Kounellis’s approach was outstanding for being immersed
work in more diffuse directions than their counterparts in the 1960s. in an epic sense of history.
Although the representatives of Arte Povera were – and its six The major survey of more than seventy works by Kounellis at
surviving affiliates continue to be – primarily independent creative the Fondazione Prada, Venice (11th May to 24th November 2019),
forces, their long careers have largely retained the characteristics that supported by a substantial monograph, was significant for being the
warranted their initial labelling as poveristi. Their art resisted a fixed first retrospective since the artist’s death.4 Consequently, decisions on
identity, was nomadic in its search for locations closer to everyday life selection and installation were assumed by Celant, who, having worked
than official institutions, and could be modified in reiterations depending with Kounellis for half a century, was well placed to take on the task.
on where it was installed. However, the lengthening perspective on that The interior of the eighteenth-century building, and the history of
1 Artists with comparable practices selected by Celant for the ‘Im Spazio’ successfully contextualised it within and his exhibition Conceptual
include Mario Ceroli (b.1938), Paolo section of the 1967 exhibition. Arte an international dimension in his book Art, Arte Povera, Land Art at
Icaro (b.1936) and Eliseo Mattiacci Povera never expanded beyond Italy Arte Povera (Milan 1969), which was Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna,
(1940–2019), all of whom were in terms of ‘membership’ but Celant translated into German and English, Turin, in 1970.
HOLMAN_ArtePovera.indd 228 18/02/2020 19:01

1. Untitled (Civil tragedy), by Jannis Kounellis. 1975. Gold leaf, coat coffee swung on small iron pans hooked one to another in vertical rows.
rack, coat, hat and lamp. (Courtesy Fondazione Prada; photograph This created a fragrant breeze through the exhibition, an experience
Agostino Osio).
of freshness and delicacy that punctuated and contrasted with the
the city itself with its crosscurrents of Mediterranean trade, furnished impressions of weight, volume and gravity conveyed by such works
rich contexts for the display. Fittingly, the earliest works in this show as Untitled (2013). This consists of iron containers with open corners
were the large paintings from 1959–60, in which bold black letters that stand like railway wagons on two parallel metal beams. Kounellis
and symbols (such as the directional arrow) in contrapuntal rhythms had used this type of structure since 1969, but in this version each box
embody the historic flow of people, goods and civilisation. The lettering, transported a different bulky object – sewing machines, coats, marble
spelling nothing, is printed onto the support using cardboard cut-outs or ceramic fragments. Key to appreciating the work is acknowledgment
in the way that words were once commonly stencilled onto seaborne of the complex interplay of materials that create layers of masked
crates or sacks. references. Iron, coal, wax, wood, fire and space combine with cotton,
Kounellis abandoned painting in 1965 in order to direct his work succulent plants, an egg and vegetation; the inanimate with the living,
beyond representation towards the physical language of actual material. high with low, open with closed. These references are not symbols but
In Untitled (1969; Tate), seven lumpen burlap sacks present different direct representations that draw on shared models of narrative. The
grains or pulses for examination by sight and smell. Placed on the stairs works convey the idea of ‘accumulation’ or ‘stratification’ of historical
near a window slightly ajar between the floors of the exhibition, Untitled perspectives that Kounellis described in his interview with White as a
(2013) set up rhythms of space, weight and balance as piles of ground characteristic of European art.
2 G. Celant: ‘Arte Povera: Appunti per Arte Povera, Milan 1985, p.35. Echoes in the Dark: Jannis Kounellis, by Germano Celant. 516 pp. incl. 902
un guerriglia’, Flash Art 5 (November/ 3 The interview was published in View Writings and Interviews 1966–2002, ills in col. + b. & w. (Fondazione Prada,
December 1967), p.3, transl. P. 1 (March 1979) and reprinted in part in London 2002, p.174. Venice, 2019), €76. ISBN 978–88–
Blanchard in G. Celant: Arte Povera = M. Codagnato and M. d’Argenzio: 4 Catalogue: Jannis Kounellis. Edited 87029–76–5.

Untitled (Civil tragedy) (Fig.1) is an exception to Kounellis’s usual Unlike Kounellis, Pascali never remade previous work, asserting in
practice of leaving works untitled.5 This beautiful installation consists 1966 that ‘I am like a serpent. Each year I shed my skin’.8 Following the
of a characteristically clear image. A wall is covered with innumerable example of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s influential Minus Objects (1965–66),
flaking squares of gold leaf, in front of which is a coat stand on a gathering of assorted individual objects and processes, Pascali
which hang a black coat and hat. Both elements are recurrent motifs committed himself to regular changes of direction, creating successive
in Kounellis’s work but in each iteration by the artist they carry a series of work that are not easily recognised as belonging to one maker.
significance that the viewer must work at to unpack. The gold wall The connection between these diverse series was an evolving logic about
resonates with Venice’s heritage of hieratic, sacred Byzantine imagery, the relationship between artifice and the suggestion of natural forms. ‘I
while the clothing simultaneously stands for the plasticity of pictorial pretend to make sculptures’, Pascali told Carla Lonzi in 1967, ‘but they
form that medieval artists began to explore thereafter and Duchamp’s do not become those sculptures which pretend to be; I want them to
lost readymade Hat rack (1917). Kounellis continued to think of himself become something light, that they are what they are, which explains
as a painter – his wall-based work with iron panels retained painterly nothing’.9 Part of one of these series, Reconstruction of a whale (1966;
frontality – and here he pays tribute to transformative perceptions in private collection) is divided into eight white sections like disconnected
art that emerged in early Renaissance workshops, where painting was vertebrae topped by vestigial head and tail shapes. The ensemble sits
practised alongside other forms (he cited the example of Verrocchio’s ponderously on the gallery floor, taking hold of the space with its
unified activity as painter, sculptor and goldsmith). The work is not strangeness and with no barrier to separate it from the viewer. As one
concerned with the artist’s personal journey but ponders a craft in of the artist’s finte sculture (‘fake sculptures’), it swings between fact and
crisis. Kounellis made the point again in a combination of music and fiction, a reinvented object presented as the real thing. ‘In actual fact
painting: in the exhibition a flautist or bass player performed at regular they are pieces of canvas stretched on wooden frames’, Pascali told Lonzi,
intervals during each day next to a canvas bearing musical notation, so ‘which strangely resemble a sculpture as well as reminding us of images
that harmonic sound filtered in some form into the viewer’s perception that we have within us’.
of the installation almost continuously. Those images, which might be perplexing or fearsome, fantastical
The original version of Civil tragedy was remade in 1986 to suit a or everyday, are derived from the artist’s imagination or the mass media
new temporary location in Chicago, where elements were subtracted or in a form of creative shorthand that Pascali learned from his work in
simplified. The posthumous version in Venice reinstated the first in every film-set design. His rendition of a specific area of street puddles, 9 square
respect but one, omitting the oil lamp that cast a shadow on the gold. metres of puddles (1967, Pinacoteca della Città metropolitana di Bari), is
The smoking lamp, a regular motif in the artist’s vocabulary to invoke pushed into a confined interior, leaving little room for the viewer. Black
the pictorial process as well as a romantic notion of time passing, was lacquered panels of chipboard and plaster have declivities carved into
here supplanted by natural light from an adjacent window that supplied them that hold water, which needs to be replenished as it evaporates.
shadow and the reflections of passing visitors. The lower part of its glass
was unobscured, but the two upper panes were covered with gold, like 2. Contropelo, by Pino Pascali. (1968; Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna e
minimalist stained glass, offering a semiotic distinction, seen before in contemporanea, Rome).
this artist’s work, between reality and the luminosity of the intellect,
filtered through colour.
Kounellis’s unorthodox assemblages rearrange perceptions of space,
scale, material and the everyday. These were qualities he shared with
his close friend Pino Pascali (1935–68), who was also the subject of a
retrospective in Venice, although notably smaller, at Palazzo Cavanis
(9th May–24th November 2019).6 Both artists studied scenography at the
Accademia delle Belle Arti in Rome with the painter Toti Scialoja and
integrated theatricality into their work. Whereas Kounellis nurtured an
‘inner theatre’ of history and memory, Pascali was an overt performer,
preoccupied with how images differ from reality. The highlight of the
sequence of modestly scaled rooms was Contropelo (Fig.2), a large shaggy
mass of acrylic textile over a framework of Eternit, a branded sheet fibre
cement construction material. The title alludes to a popular hairstyle
involving backcombing and may have no connection with the toadstool
form that appears toy-like in its covering of greyish fun fur. Standing
chest-height to the visitor, however, its size imposes an altered, or
child’s, relationship to reality. This perspective was important to Pascali
in reformulating the language of sculptural perception. ‘Rather than
being an aesthetic experience’, he noted, his work ‘was an extended
linguistic crisis. I was trying out idioms which belonged to other human
experiences and which tallied with the heroic world of my childhood’.7
5 This important work has been Valérie Da Costa, Francesca Stocchi
analysed in S. Bann: Jannis Kounellis, and Marco Tonelli. 176 pp. incl. numer-
London 2003, pp.125–31 and 194–98. ous ills. (Sfera Edizione, Venice, 2019),
6 Catalogue: Pino Pascali, From €49.99. ISBN 978–88–85753–09–9.
Image to Shape: Photographs, 7 Pino Pascali, ‘I was born in 1935…’,
sculptures and films. With essays by an undated, handwritten statement

The exhibition explored the processes by which these transformative 3. Perimeter of an area, by Emilio Prini. 1967. Fluorescent tubes,
falsifications of everyday realities came about. In addition to notebook transformers, relay switches and electric cables, dimensions variable.
(Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz; photograph Renato Ghiazza).
drawings, mostly from 1967 (private collection), the display included
recently discovered photographs taken by the artist in 1965. Made on exhibited very infrequently. His work was rarely reproduced in books;
a visit to Rome and Naples, they had no overt artistic purpose beyond the illustration section dedicated to him in the catalogue to the Tate’s
gathering imagery for a tomato-sauce advertisement he was making for exhibition Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962–1972 in 2001 typically features
his day job at the creative studio Lodolofilm. They show fishermen at no statement and several blank pages.11 When Arte Povera was rebooted
work, stretches of the Mediterranean coastline and children playing with in the 1980s as an historiographical phenomenon, Prini was notable
toys, evoking Pascali’s character in a manner similar to his playful filmed for being absent. He is the least familiar of the poveristi and the most
performances – in the first room, he was seen in action and in costume conceptual of them, whose works are frequently described in such terms
as a high-spirited Pulcinella in a short film for children from 1965, as ineffable, enigmatic and cryptic.
conceived with Lodolofilm for the state broadcaster’s popular Carosello The retrospective at Fondazione Merz in Milan (28th October 2019–
television show, and not a work of art. Photography did play a role in 9th February 2020) provided, therefore, a rare, even unprecedented,
Pascali’s practice, but he did not make use of these images. Although opportunity to see a comprehensive collection of his production over
not shown here, he made images with professional photographers in his fifty years.12 The only other survey, in Strasbourg in 1995–96, was overseen
studio or outdoors to show him interacting with sculptural objects.10 and edited by the artist.13 As a result of Prini’s death, his embargoes were
On one occasion he dressed in a ‘primitive’ fashion, in a raffia skirt lifted somewhat for the exhibition, which was organised by his daughter,
and headdress, wielding the rustic tools of his assemblage Agricultural Timotea Prini, and the Fondazione’s director, Beatrice Merz, daughter of
implements (1968; Galleria Nazionale, Rome) in a faux-menacing, haka- his close associates Marisa and Mario Merz. What survives of Prini’s work
like pose. Reproduced in contemporary catalogues and invitations, such overturns conventions of originality, chronology, titling and authorship.
images suggest how Pascali viewed his work and the irreverent attitude Going further even than Kounellis, Prini modified and retitled his art as
towards it that he hoped his audience would adopt. well as remaking it. He was not troubled by the demands of the market,
Kounellis and Pascali were unusual among Arte Povera’s the lure of history or the cult of the archive; his preoccupation was
representatives in that they both worked in Rome (Kounellis, who was with present action and with documenting what had just passed. Five
Greek, was unique in being born outside of Italy). The other artists were vitrines contained documents and photographs of actions by the artist
mostly based in northern Italy, predominantly around Turin. During that have no other material remains. In any case, Prini often preferred
the 1960s Emilio Prini (1943–2016) lived in Genoa, and he made his the image to the actual object. For two international exhibitions in 1970,
public debut in Celant’s inaugural show there in 1967. He continued to in Lucerne and New York, his contribution amounted to a telegram
participate in group shows until that in Munich in 1971, after which he confirming his participation.
from a private archive, quoted in A. 9 Carla Lonzi’s interview first ment of the world: Pino Pascali’s 12 There was no catalogue, but
d’Elia: Pino Pascali, Milan 2010, p.265. appeared in Marcatré 30–33 (1967), late work’, Artforum 49, no.9 the Fondazione Merz is planning
8 ‘Io sono come un serpente. Ogni anno and was reprinted in a translation by (2011), pp.238–49. to publish a book on his work.
cambio pelle’, P. Pascali: ‘Lo spettatore’, G. Williams in C. Christov-Barkargiev: 11 R. Flood: exh. cat. Zero to 13 F. Malsch, ed.: exh. cat. Emilio
poem written in 1966 for his one-person Arte Povera, London 1999, p.264. Infinity: Arte Povera 1962–1972, Prini: fermi in dogana, Strasbourg
exhibition at Galleria L’Attico, Rome. 10 See M. Godfrey: ‘The re-enchant- London (Tate Modern) 2001. (Ancienne Douane) 1995.

The utilitarian Fondazione Merz, built as a heating plant for the that had driven Italy’s post-war economic miracle cannot be dismissed;
Lancia car manufacturer in the 1930s, provided a sympathetic setting that boom was itself near exhaustion by 1967. As with the standard, his
for work that was always contingent on place and opportunity. Early works channel a kind of cod-science that defied interpretation, although
examples measured spaces: in Perimeter of an area (Fig.3) electrical he supported it with typed sheets full of calculated formulae. In one
transformers power neon bulbs in corners of a room crisscrossed by manifestation in print on paper (1969; Turco collection, Parma), he used
cabling, periodically activating a claxon. Flat metal plates scattered on the standard to propose a cassette tape recorder recording the sound of
the floor in Perimeter measure of a room (1967; private collection) perform a its own mechanism until all its tape is used up and the device is worn out.
similar function, carrying hard-to-read inscriptions that keep the viewer In Magnets (1969–70; private collection) Prini made 20,000 photographs
crouched or squatting (neither of which are physically comfortable) and of a single image, an Exakta camera seen as if looking into the lens,
in constant motion within the defined area. The length of illuminated produced until the camera taking the photographs broke, a process the
neon cable nearby is impossible to estimate because it is coiled around a artist calculated would take ten years. These prints were stacked in piles
spool, but it originally corresponded with the length of the gallery where to form the work, the subject of which is not the repeated image but the
it was shown. Banal in appearance when unlit; switched on it becomes a mechanical action of the camera and its consumption of film. Photography
brilliant revelation. Prini often cited the concept of a ‘standard’ as a point was by then transcending its initial function of documenting art to become
of reference for exploring space. Originally established by a six-metre long a new form of work, a development which Prini was quick to grasp.
green aluminium bar (now known only from photographs), this measure Prini’s interest in exploring modes of perception was shared with
remains flat or curves depending on the size of the non-standard space it Fabro, especially in the first years of Arte Povera, and his invitation to
is placed in to dictate the form of the work.
4. Installation view of Marisa Merz: Disconnected Geometries
Prini went to considerable lengths in pursuit of obsolescence and the Geometrical Pulsations at MASI, Lugano, 22nd September 2019–12th
implication that he intended to comment on the consumerist impulse January 2020.

his audience to decode his works has obvious affinities with Paolini. His here, the first works seen on entering the exhibition, were made with
approach appears to be the opposite of that of Mario and Marisa Merz, copper wire; their tender delicacy contrasted with the bustle of the
yet he collaborated with them. This was registered in the exhibition street outside while also achieving a quiet, confident monumentality
by five of their works, including Marisa Merz’s three-minute silent, in spite of their human scale.
black-and-white film, La Conta (1967; Merz collection, Turin), which Merz described this constantly evolving network of objects,
shows the artist in her kitchen (itself an epicentre of artistic activity meanings, dimensions, spaces and time as ‘connecting rather than
and dialogue).14 Although an example of her work in aluminium, Untitled ordering and isolating’.18 Fist-sized or slightly larger, the freestanding
(Living sculpture) from 1966, is glimpsed in the shadows, the focus of the sculptural heads have the expression of dawning awareness, craning
piece is on Merz, who slowly counts out tinned peas onto a plate at a upwards to catch sounds. The paintings are also dominated by eyes,
table laden with household utensils. The tedium of housework is central, either open in an intense gaze or closed in inner vision. The inevitable
and although Merz recoiled from being called a feminist, the solitary comparison is with icons; many heads are wreathed or faced with gold
(and, perhaps, silent) struggle of women was an enduring theme. She paint, but these are secular entities. The face in a small painting in mixed
saw no distinction between her work as an artist and her life as wife media on panel (2013; Veritable Art Trust) faces outwards from within a
and mother. wooden box that takes the place of a frame. Its deep recess is protective
The ‘feminine specificity’ perceived in her practice was, however, of a head wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as if on the cusp of knowledge,
considered limiting by an art system memorably described in 1975 by confirming an experience gained in the process of making.
the critic and curator Tommaso Trini as ‘capitalistic and centred on Arte Povera has survived the specific context of its emergence,
men’.15 Although now recognised as a central figure in Arte Povera, the disparities between the approaches it represents and the broad
Merz was not included in the 1967 exhibition, nor in the show that claims made for its meaning. It arose against the background of a
opened at Galleria de’ Foscherari in Bologna in February 1968,16 and return to order in post-war Italian culture and, even as an exclusively
the status of her involvement in its successor, Arte Povera più azione in Italian phenomenon, it has maintained its contemporaneity after
Amalfi in 1968, remains contested. Her own attitude to the association fifty-two years. This apparent resistance to ageing is in large part
was ambivalent; she preferred the privacy of her kitchen-studio and the due to the resonance of these artists’ ways of working for younger
scope of public interventions and gestures to manifestations of group figures. For example, in Untitled (1998; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte
allegiance in exhibitions. But from the 1970s she began to make small Contemporanea) Maurizio Cattelan (b.1960) planted an olive tree
figurative, head-like objects in unfired clay, followed in the next decade in a tall mound of earth, an installation reminiscent of the binary
by works on paper, often showing a female face. meanings of natural materials and living art found in the sculpture of
Concentrating on this later production, the exhibition at MASI, Giuseppe Penone (b.1947), and his Novecento (1997; Castello di Rivoli)
Lugano, Marisa Merz: Disconnected Geometries Geometrical Pulsations (22nd made reference to Kounellis by suspending a taxidermied horse by a
September–12th January), was assembled by Beatrice Merz in collaboration sling from the gallery ceiling. Homage to Arte Povera has, however,
with her mother, whose last project this was.17 Her death in July 2019 been most powerfully evident in work that both acknowledges and
contributed to the emotional tension of the installation. The space itself, subverts the major modernist sculptural discourse that can be traced
an artificially lit basement of a modern block of lakeside apartments with a back to it. The Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco (b.1962), for example,
low ceiling painted black to mask overhead ducting, added to the display’s displays affinities with the group in his work with common materials
curiously intimate character, not out of keeping with the atmosphere of and found objects and in his interest in primitivising or mythological
Merz’s home studio. The floor was subdivided by a diagonal partition into sources, but these features are balanced by a contrasting fascination
a circular route, an unintended metaphor for Merz’s success in frustrating with technology.
attempts to construct a chronology of her career in conventional terms. The impact of Arte Povera on subsequent generations has been a
She was enigmatic about her origins (to all intents, she emerged as a fully matter less of direct influence than of affinity in new transformations
formed artist in 1966) and her work is not only untitled but also undated of common materials and digressions from prevailing convention. The
and unsigned. She constantly rearranged existing pieces with new objects exhibition Poor Art/Arte Povera: Italian Influences, British Responses at
as if they existed in their own time, space and reality. the Estorick Collection, London, in 2017, curated by the British artist
By repeating gestures and reusing existing forms Merz maintained Stephen Nelson with the present author,19 demonstrated how awareness
connections between every phase of her working life. The swooping of Arte Povera, primarily through exhibitions, helped to establish the
lines and marks in graphite that weave a complex and mysterious face in attitudes and methods of such artists as Tony Cragg, Eric Bainbridge,
Untitled (1993; Kunst Museum Winterthur) echo the distorted geometries Anya Gallaccio, Mona Hatoum and Gavin Turk. The sensitivity to
of knitted squares of copper wire strung together at random intervals in materials and spacing of objects associated with Arte Povera has also
Untitled (Fig.4), which produce a mesh of tangled shadows on a long wall been important for such sculptors as Karla Black and Ian Kiaer. For
by the entrance. That work in turn connects with the scarpette (little many of these artists, inspiration has been drawn both directly from Arte
shoes), personal and portable untitled sculptures that evoke memories of Povera and from artists whose absorption of it had occurred a decade
childhood and of mothers stitching shapes into being as therapy for the or more earlier. Such connections are traceable to historical surveys of
chaos of domestic life. Merz first knitted the malleable, slipper-shaped the poveristi, and they make the exhibitions of the past year relevant to
forms in 1968 with stiff nylon thread shaped to the body. The pair shown present practice as well as to an understanding of the recent past.
14 It was first shown at Galleria C. Butler, ed.: exh. cat. Marisa Merz: included. Ceroli and Gianni Piacentino €27. ISBN 978–88–6749–390–6.
L’Attico in 1968, in a solo show by The Sky is a Great Space, Los (b.1945), however, took part. 18 Cited in T. Trini: ‘Intervista
Michelangelo Pistoletto, a further Angeles (Hammer) and New York 17 See the essays by E. Coen and D. a Maria Merz’, Marcatré 26–29
example of cooperation within (Met Breuer) 2017, p.16. Fogle, in the Catalogue: Marisa Merz, (December 1966), p.97.
the grouping. 16 This exhibition featured ten of Geometrie sconnesse palpiti geome- 19 The exhibition was reviewed by
15 T. Trini: ‘Marisa Merz’, Data 17 the poveristi, with Pier Paolo Calzolari trici. Edited by Beatrice Merz. 120 pp., Francesco Guzzetti in this Magazine,
(1975), quoted in English transl. in and Giuseppe Penone yet to be incl. numerous ills (MASI, Lugano, 2019), 159 (2017), pp.1010–11.

Exhibitions
Works by the two greatest masters of that Thorvaldsen’s intention was not to
imitate the Italian master but to offer a
deliberately different approach.
Neoclassical sculpture are set in the Thorvaldsen was seen by his
mainly Danish and German supporters
illuminating context of the art world to be a fundamentally different artist

from Canova, dedicated to the spirit
rather than the flesh, offering a moral
of their time alternative to Canova’s crowd-pleasing
sensuality, although there is no doubt
that he learned much from the Italian
Canova Thorvaldsen: The of a notable book on Thorvaldsen,1 and 1. Anton Frederik sculptor. This difference can be seen
Birth of Modern Sculpture Fernando Mazzocca, an authority on Tscherning most clearly in the exhibition in the
introducing two
Gallerie d’Italia, Milan Canova and nineteenth-century Italian countrymen to confrontation between Canova’s
23rd October 2019–15th March art, have borrowed far and wide from the statue of marble Hebe of 1800–05 (cat.no.XIII.1;
Italy, the United States and Britain to Vulcan in the Fig.3) and Thorvaldsen’s version
Thorvaldsen
by david bindman give a full account of both sculptors’ Museum, by Carl of c.1815 (no.XIII.2; Fig.2). Canova’s
fame and achievements. Michael Dahl. dynamic womanly figure is propelled
c.1860–65. Oil on
This splendid and boldly conceived An exhibition of two such canvas, 38 by 38
forward on an illusionistic cloud, which
exhibition is housed in the celebrated public sculptors as cm. (Thorvaldsen shocked his admirers and enemies
appropriately grand setting of the Antonio Canova (1757–1822) and Museum, alike; he was persuaded to replace it
Copenhagen; exh.
Gallerie d’Italia, a former bank building Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) is Gallerie d’Italia, with a tree stump in later versions.
in the centre of Milan. The exhibition inevitably limited to their moveable Milan). Thorvaldsen’s figure is by contrast
derives from a collaboration principally works, so their funerary, religious Opposite left demure and virginal, contemplating
between the State Hermitage Museum, and monumental commemorative 2. Hebe, thoughtfully the life-giving nectar in
St Petersburg, with its superb sculptures can be represented only by by Bertel the bowl she is carrying. As the Danish
Thorvaldsen.
Canovas formerly in the collection models in the rare cases that they exist. 1815, after poet Friederike Brun wrote of it at
of the Empress Joséphine, and the However, comparison between the a model of the time: ‘she is much too good for
1806–07. Marble,
Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, two is made easier by the fact that they height 156.5 cm.
Olympia, and one could boldly set her
which holds the definitive collection of often represented the same classical (Thorvaldsen in a Christian chapel, with the title on
the sculptor’s works. The exhibition’s figure subjects. In most cases Canova Museum, the pedestal innocentia’.2
Copenhagen; exh.
curators, Stefano Grandesso, the author made the first version, and it is clear Gallerie d’Italia, It is difficult to bring out such
Milan). distinctions between the sculptors in
Opposite right an exhibition but that is evidently not
3. Hebe, by the curators’ main aim. Although the
Antonio Canova.
1800–05. Marble,
Hebes of the two artists are displayed
height 161 cm. together and the exhibition opens with
(State Hermitage a spectacular confrontation between
Museum, St
Petersburg; exh. two versions of the Three Graces, the
Gallerie d’Italia, first of two by Thorvaldsen (1820–23;
Milan). Thorvaldsen Museum; no.VII.2), and
Canova’s version in the Hermitage
(1812–17; no.VII.1), other such eloquent
pairings are avoided. Canova’s great
late Venus (1817–20; Leeds Art Gallery;
no.X.2) is placed next to a derivation
from it by the Dutch sculptor Mathieu
Kessels (1825–29(?); Royal Fine Arts
Museum, Brussels; no.X.4), while
Thorvaldsen’s Venus victorious from
the National Art Museum, Kaunas
(1805–09; no.X.3), is put on an extended
plinth facing away from Canova’s
version, although in the catalogue they
face each other on opposite pages.
The strength of the exhibition
then is not in the relationship between
the two sculptors but in the setting of
their illustrious careers within the art
EXHIBITIONS_MAR20.indd 234 18/02/2020 19:24

Exhibitions
4. Dance of world of the early nineteenth century. reformer Anton Frederik Tscherning dominated by the exquisite standing
the sons of This is done through a remarkable theatrically introducing Thorvaldsen’s group by Canova from the Hermitage
Alcynous, by
Antonio Canova. range of images, some very little Vulcan to two bemused country people (1800–03; no.XII.2), accompanied by the
1790–92. Plaster, known, including groups of self- (no.VII.11; Fig.1). posthumous workshop copy in marble
141 by 281 cm. portraits by the two artists, drawings of of Thorvaldsen’s original plaster in the
(Fondazione
The sections following those
Cariplo, Gallerie their famously public Roman studios on the ‘gloria’ of the two artists are Thorvaldsen Museum (1861; no.XII.3).
d’Italia, Milan; and heroic representations of and by devoted to their sculpture, beginning What would have been an instructive
Bridgeman
Images).
the sculptors themselves, designed with a large section on portraits, opportunity to compare the two is
to promote the primacy of sculpture which demonstrates how much more vitiated by their placing on either side
among the arts. immediately engaging Canova was as of the two Hebes by the same artists.
It is clear from the display of a portraitist. The rest of the exhibition It is of course difficult to show large
such works that both sculptors were is devoted to the display of marbles of numbers of full-size marble figures in a
brilliant and effective self-publicists, classical subjects by the two sculptors, compelling way but one feels here the
who used every opportunity to spread set against comparable examples of domination of the designer over the
their fame. Reproductions of their both sculpture and paintings. The curator. The sequence of subject-based
sculptures in reduced models – some statues of Hebe, for instance, are sections ends with Ganymede, a subject
of those on display are of exquisite presented in the company of a series attempted by Thorvaldsen – no doubt
quality – and engravings spread their of rather uninspiring paintings by influenced by Goethe’s poem on the
fame throughout Europe. Canova was a artists from different countries of Hebe subject – but not by Canova, and with
favourite of popes and deeply admired feeding Jupiter in the form of an eagle. the shepherd, again a subject attempted
by kings, princes and poets, whereas The representation of Cupid is divided only by Thorvaldsen, which includes
Thorvaldsen was treated on his brief into two parts, one concerning the the Shepherd boy from Manchester Art
return from Rome to Copenhagen single figure and story of Cupid and Gallery (1823–26; no.XVI.1).
in 1838 as a national hero. When he the other Cupid and Psyche. The first Also included in the catalogue,
returned finally to Denmark in 1842 group contains examples by Canova but exhibited as a kind of appendix in
a museum dedicated to his work was and Thorvaldsen set among relatively their permanent home in a separate
already in progress. The exterior was feeble statues by other artists and part of the building, is Canova’s
later decorated by life-size images in large paintings, but is redeemed by the spectacular series of thirteen plaster
encaustic of the sculptor’s arrival in presence of a beautiful group of multi- reliefs made between 1787 and 1790 for
Denmark, greeted by the populace and figured reliefs by Thorvaldsen of the Abbondio Rezzonico (Fig.4), which
followed by a procession of his works. story of Cupid. were acquired for the Fondazione
Something of Thorvaldsen’s reputation The Cupid and Psyche exhibits Cariplo in the 1990s. The question
can be gleaned from a painting by Carl appear coherent in the catalogue but of Canova’s relationship to John
Michael Dahl showing the democratic less so in the exhibition. They are Flaxman, then working on his outline

Exhibitions
drawings for Homer and Dante,

is raised, but a comparison with
Thorvaldsen is not broached.
The massive catalogue contains
full entries and good reproductions of
each object but the essays, reflecting the
international nature of the exhibition,
are mostly peripheral to its themes.3
Two are devoted to Russian interest in
the sculptors, three to Thorvaldsen and
Denmark, and one, somewhat oddly,
to the influence of the two sculptors
on Spanish Neoclassical sculptors,
although there are no Spanish works in
the exhibition. Most of the essays deal
with the two artists separately; only
one, by Grandesso, looks penetratingly
at the complex relationship between Wing,2 it uses sound, lighting, careful and the goddesses, the siege of Troy, 5. The death
the two sculptors. He discusses the object placement and backdrops to its fall and the aftermath. The myth is of Hector, King
Priam and The
influence on Thorvaldsen of the create an atmosphere that invites engagingly brought to life with the help Skaian Gate,
German-Danish circle of Wilhelm von viewers’ engagement with the subject. of such objects as a dinos (c.580–570 by Anthony
Humboldt, from which the sculptor The first gallery contains three of the BC; figs.35 and 36a–d), a black-figure Caro. 1993–94.
Ceramic,
acquired ideas from Goethe and forty sculptural pieces representing wine-mixing bowl, painted by Sophilos pine, steel
Schiller that emphasised his differences the battlefield of the Trojan War that with a depiction of the celebrations (left, centre);
stoneware, steel,
from Canova. The richness of these Anthony Caro created between 1993 of the wedding between Peleus and jarrah wood
differences, and indeed the influence of and 1994 (cat. fig.8; Fig.5). Displayed Thetis, which set the chain of events (right), 168 by
each sculptor on the other, are hard to opposite this installation are pots, in motion. Among the works in this 122 by 135 cm;
137 by 74 by
discern from the exhibition itself, but including a clay tripod pot (2550–2300 breathtaking display is a geometric 34.5 cm; 229
it is difficult to see how this could have BC; fig.144), which were excavated drinking cup (c.715 BC; fig.18), from by 305 by 153
been conveyed without accompanying by Heinrich Schliemann at Troy the Greek colony of Pithekoussai on cm. (Barford
Sculptures,
the sculptures with an excessive and burnt in 1945 during the Allied the island of Ischia. It is inscribed with London; exh.
amount of supplementary information. bombing of Berlin. Between these lines that identify the object as the British Museum,
objects is Cy Twombly’s painting cup of Nestor; in the Iliad Nestor is a London).
1 S. Grandesso: Bertel Thorvaldsen
(1770–1844), Cinisello Balsamo 2018. Vengeance of Achilles (1962; Kunsthalle Greek king reputed to drink from a
2 D. Bindman: Warm Flesh, Cold Marble: Zürich; fig.250) depicting a red-tipped golden cup. Among representations of
Canova, Thorvaldsen and Their Critics,
New Haven and London 2014, p.86. hooded figure – or is it a spear? There the myth in Pompeiian frescos (figs.33,
3 Catalogue: Canova Thorvaldsen: La nascita is a desolate soundscape of creaking 44, 59, 81 and 99) and Etruscan tomb
dell scultura moderna. Edited by Stefano
Grandesso and Fenando Mazzocca. 408 pp. wood and whistling wind, and low paintings (figs.32 and 38) is a Gandharan
incl. numerous col. + b. & w. ills. (Skira, Turin, light invites viewers to step closer and relief (AD 100–200; fig.80), probably
2019), €42. ISBN 978–88–572–4252–1.
examine works in detail. Troy, in this found near Hund, in Pakistan, which
telling, is as much our story as it is an depicts the Trojan horse.
ancient story. There are problematic aspects of
Troy: Myth and Reality In the next gallery the sound of the display. The exhibition presents
British Museum, London wind is replaced by recitations of the these objects as if they belonged to a
21st November 2019–8th March Trojan cycle by Homer and Virgil in homogenous ancient culture revolving
Greek, Latin and English translation. around Homer and scenes inspired by
by daniel r. stewart A group of objects highlights the the poems. Their local context and the
importance of the Homeric epics distinctions between objects and places
Disentangling myth from history can for ancient education; it includes a are lost. A sarcophagus from Crete
be tricky – not because identifying bust of Homer (AD 100–200; fig.12), (AD 150–200; figs.55a–c) depicting the
the ‘stories’ is difficult, but because Athenian red-figure amphorae life of Achilles is presented as Roman,
those stories have informed actions depicting recitations (figs.13 and 14) and although it is made from Attic marble
and beliefs and, therefore, influenced a wooden board from the fifth century for an inhabitant of a Greek city. The
history, literature and art. Myths BC (fig.15) that preserves handwritten Athenian red-figure vases on show are
have also inspired the creation of lines from the Iliad, probably an ancient vessels made for export and were found
material objects and there is perhaps student’s exercise. The following in Etruscan tombs. How the epics were
no better illustration of this than the displays, devoted to the themes of read and what they meant in Archaic
present exhibition on Troy.1 Like past the Trojan war, tell the story of the Greece (900–500 BC) would have been
exhibitions in the museum’s Sainsbury myth: the judgment of Paris, Helen different from the way they were read

Exhibitions
6. An owl-like ‘face this is juxtaposed on the opposite wall

pot’. Troy, Turkey, with the presentation of archaeological
2550–1750 BC.
Pottery, height ‘reality’, but much of the myth of
28 cm. (Museum Schliemann is unexplored.
für Vor- und The last part of the exhibition
Frühgeschichte,
Berlin; exh. British deals with ‘modern’ (loosely defined
Museum, London). as medieval and later) engagements
7. Dead Hector, with Troy, ranging from the earliest
by Briton Rivière. printed works and Pre-Raphaelite
1892. Oil on
canvas, 76.8 paintings to modern theatre and film
by 122.7 cm. productions. Seeing how different
(Manchester artists presented key episodes from
Art Gallery; exh.
British Museum, the epics rightly raises the question of
London). how ‘heroic’ can be defined (Fig.239;
Fig.7). However, given that the
Trojan cycle is about conflict, there is
surprisingly little on modern conflicts
in the exhibition. There is a screening
of Reem Alsayyah’s powerful play
Queens of Syria, a retelling of Trojan
Women by Syrian refugees (fig.211), but
the artist has recently criticised BP’s
in early Christian Egypt (AD 300–600). that surrounded Schliemann’s sponsorship of the exhibition.4 Inviting
By presenting objects from all periods discovery of what he declared to be the charity Waterloo Uncovered,
side-by-side, the display elides the Priam’s Treasure and includes his whose team comprises archaeologists,
diverse contexts of the ancient world. photograph of the treasure (fig.136) veterans and serving soldiers, to reflect
The central part of the as well as the photograph of his wife, on the theme of ‘heroes’ in quotes,
exhibition, which showcases Sophia, wearing the ‘jewels of Helen’ labels and a recording seems superficial
archaeological engagement with Troy, (fig.135). These objects are now in if not cynical on the part of the British
is a largely uncritical presentation Moscow, having been seized by Soviet Museum, as if Wilfred Owen’s critique
of the complex figure of Schliemann troops in Berlin in 1945, and none has of classical tropes in martial culture
(1822–90). Schliemann shook up the been lent to the exhibition. Instead the had never been written. Aeneas, the
archaeological establishment of the focus is on other artefacts excavated Trojan survivor and legendary founder
nineteenth century by claiming that at the time, such as the face pots, that of Rome, is perhaps the ancient world’s
Homer’s texts were based on history. remain in Berlin. On one of the walls most famous refugee, yet aside from
Recent archaeology lends some the display of these objects presents Alsayyah, contemporary refugees
support to this idea: for example, Schliemann’s interpretation of his finds; are absent.
Mycenaean stirrup jars have been
found in Troy (at Hisarlik in modern
Turkey; fig.155), demonstrating the
city’s connections with ancient
Greece. But his desire to demonstrate
the historical accuracy of Homer led
Schliemann to read the archaeology in
a highly selective manner: Homer had
described Athena as glaukopis, which
Schliemann translated as ‘owl-faced’,
allowing hime to identify face-pots
(fig.124; Fig.6) as representations of
Athena. Moreover, anything burnt or
broken became evidence of a siege.
It is worth pointing out (although
the exhibition does not) that modern
archaeology is not immune from such
influences. Schliemann was no stranger
to myth-making and in his own time
was accused of fabricating material
and the contexts of recovery.3 The
exhibition alludes to the controversy

Exhibitions
The tagline for the exhibition

is ‘myth and reality’; it certainly has
more of the former than the latter. The
British Museum presents a gripping
and complicated version of the myth,
but it is only one version. Historians do
not exist outside of history – they are
part of it, products of it and therefore
influenced by it. It is precisely because
the Homeric myths are enduring stories
about what it means to be human,
which cut across time and space and
have continued to have a powerful
influence, that we need to pick them
apart, hold them up to the light and
shake them to see what falls out.
1 Catalogue: Troy: Myth and Reality. By
Alexandra Villing, J. Lesley Fitton, Victoria
Donnellan and Andrew Shapland. 312 pp. incl.
300 ills. (Thames and Hudson, London and New
York, 2019), £40. ISBN 978–0–500–48055–7.
2 See, for example, Defining Beauty, reviewed
by Christine Gardner in this Magazine, 157
(2015), pp.489–90.
3 See D. Traill: Schliemann of Troy: Treasure
and Deceit. London 1996; and O. Dickinson:
‘The “Face of Agamemnon”’, Hesperia 74, no.3
(2005), pp.299–308.
4 L. Bakare: ‘Syrian artist latest to attack BP
sponsorship of British Museum’, The Guardian
(18th November 2019), available at https:// name can be securely connected with 8. Virgin and first room, ‘Great Masters’, takes a
www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/18/
specific works, all of them executed Child with saints, different approach; its six beautifully
syrian-artist-attack-bp-sponsorship-of-british- by Alvaro Pirez
museum-reem-alsayyah-troy-exhibition-oil- in Italy between 1410 and 1434. The d’Évora. After lit paintings include the museum’s
firm, accessed 11th February 2020.
present exhibition, organised in 1417. Tempera own Annunciation (no.1; Fig.9), probably
collaboration with the Polo Museale and gold and the left wing of a diptych, in dialogue
silver on panel,
della Toscana, is also a first, showcasing 188 by 241 cm. with works by Pirez’s contemporaries,
Alvaro Pirez d’Évora: A the considerable talents of this unjustly (Pinacoteca Lorenzo Monaco, Gherardo Starnina,
Civica, Comune
Portuguese Painter in Italy on neglected artist alongside judiciously di Volterra;
Gentile da Fabriano and Fra Angelico,
the Eve of the Renaissance chosen works by his Italian and Iberian exhibited without although, sadly, Masolino’s great Virgin
Museu Nacional de Arte contemporaries, in the context of the predella of Humility (c.1415; Galleria degli Uffizi,
at the Museu
Antiga, Lisbon artistic exchange across the western Nacional de Arte Florence; no.11), was placed, out of
29th November 2019–15th March Mediterranean at the beginning of the Antiga, Lisbon). sight, in the second room.
fifteenth century.2 In the first room Gentile’s Virgin of
by geoffrey nuttall Of the Datini fresco cycle only Humility (c.1418–20; Museo Nazionale
the badly damaged sinopias survive; di San Matteo, Pisa; no.4), captures the
In 1410 King John I of Portugal invested six of the sixteen extant fragments are attention. However, examples of Pirez’s
20,000 gold florins in the Monte on show in Lisbon, depicting Scenes works in later rooms interrogate his
di Firenze, initiating a Portuguese from the charitable works of Francesco debt to Lorenzo Monaco and Starnina,
connection with Florence that Datini (Casa Pia dei Ceppi, Prato; cat. and elicit questions about his response
culminated artistically in the 1460s, no.67a–k). But the exhibition also to other masters not represented in
in the construction of the chapel includes many of the artist’s other the exhibition, notably Ghiberti. In
of his grandson James, Cardinal of key surviving works, with just one his Annunciation, Pirez, like Gentile,
Portugal, at S. Miniato al Monte. In significant omission, a small triptych delights in the depiction of luxury
the same year, one of John’s subjects, in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum, fabrics and the dazzling effects of gold
Alvaro Pirez d’Évora, entered the Braunschweig, signed and dated 1434. leaf, but where Gentile is primarily
historical record when an account The works are displayed in seven interested in surface pattern and colour,
book of the Francesco Datini company topographically themed rooms of in Pirez is also concerned with texture and
recorded him working on the exterior museum’s ground floor. Room two is hue, carefully modelling the expanse
of the Palazzo Datini in Prato from devoted to the western Mediterranean, of brocade that envelops the Virgin, its
November 1410 to May 1411.1 Thanks to room three to Portugal and rooms crimson folds as iridescent as enamel.
this document Alvaro Pirez occupies four to seven to the Tuscan cities Elsewhere in the exhibition, this keen
a unique place in the history of art as where Pirez is known to have worked: interest in the material properties of
Portugal’s first native painter whose Lucca, Pisa, Volterra and Prato. The luxury silks, set against a background of

Exhibitions
finely tooled gold and silver leaf, as in 9. Annunciation, edge of Pisan territory, towards Lucca. of Ceuta, on the North African coast,
the Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and by Alvaro Pirez The room is dominated, however, by in 1415. It also asserts Pirez’s high status
d’Évora. c.1430–
Anthony (1430–34; Musée des Beaux- 35. Tempera and his masterpiece, the joyful Virgin and by the 1420s, which subsequently
Arts, Dijon; no.36), and the central gold on panel, Child with angels (no.45; Fig.10). Signed extended into southern Italy, as
panel of the Virgin and Child with saints 30.5 by 22 cm. in Portuguese, its scale, opulence and evidenced earlier in the exhibition by
(Museu Nacional
(no.57; Fig.8) suggests, together with de Arte Antiga, location in a church associated with a the St Lucy panel (1430; Convento dei
payments for gold made to Pirez by Lisbon; © DGPC/ Portuguese saint, Anthony of Padua, Cappuccini, Nola; no.17). Between
ADF; photograph
Datini’s executors in 1411, that the artist Luísa Oliveira).
and with the convent of S. Croce 1418 and 1428 Pirez received at least
trained as a goldsmith in Portugal. in Coimbra, may reflect Portugal’s four important commissions for the
Room two draws together works expanding presence in the commercial relatively minor city of Volterra, which
from across the Iberian and Italian and cultural networks of the western are on show in room six. They include
peninsulas, including Florentine Mediterranean after John I’s capture Virgin and Child with saints, his only
masters working in Spain. Examples of
Pirez’s œuvre destined for patrons in
southern Italy and Sardinia illustrate
the Mediterranean’s rich cross-cultural
currents and the impact of Tuscan
painters working in the Iberian
peninsula at the end of the fourteenth
century. In stark contrast, the objects
in room three, which is devoted to
Portuguese sculpture and goldsmith’s
work during the Avis dynasty,
demonstrate that although these arts
may have provided the young Pirez
with excellent masters, to develop as a
painter it was essential to look beyond
Portugal, to the artistic heritage of
Toledo, Valencia and Tuscany.
A narrow corridor connects
rooms three and four, evoking the
passage from the Atlantic coast to the
shores of Tuscany, and first to Lucca,
where Pirez painted a now lost Virgin
and Child, dated 1424. Here, he would
have experienced the princely court
of Paolo Guinigi and encountered
one of Starnina’s masterpieces, the
Virgin and Child with saints (Martin
von Wagner Museum, Würzburg).
As works by other Lucchese artists in
this room, such as Spinello Aretino,
Angelo Puccinelli and Battista
di Gerio, forcefully convey, it is
above all the colour juxtapositions,
elegant lines and vitality of Starnina,
represented in the exhibition by two
panels from the Assumption of the
Virgin altarpiece (c.1404–08; Museo
Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, Lucca;
no.39), that made the deepest impact
on Pirez and set him apart from these
more ponderous masters.
In room five the Virgin and
Child (c.1425–30; Museo Nazionale
di San Matteo, Pisa; no.44a) is set
in a hypothetical reconstruction of
Pirez’s altarpiece for the church of
S. Agostino di Nicosia, Calci, on the

altarpiece to have survived virtually GRASSI Museum in Leipzig. Founded
intact and with some of its original in 1873 as the second museum of
frame. It is here, in a commission applied arts in Germany, it houses
possibly mediated through a Florentine a broad spectrum of textiles, from
connection, that Pirez’s debt to early Coptic weavings to Bauhaus
Lorenzo Monaco is most apparent. and contemporary fabrics. Used to
The exhibition’s final destination, decorate, distinguish and enrich
Prato, is temporally its first, a factor textiles and clothing, embroidery is
dictated by the museum’s limited an ancient technique, as is shown by
exhibition space. Here are the six the display of needles at the beginning
Palazzo Datini sinopias, pertinent of the exhibition, which date from
documents from the Datini Archive, the early bronze age to today. As a
paintings by three of Pirez’s four medium, embroidery lies between
Florentine collaborators and his early image and writing, as well as between
panel of the Virgin and Child between drawing, painting and sculpture.1
Sts Bartholomew and Antony Abbot and With a choice of around 150
the Annunciation (c.1400–10; Museu garments, accessories and other
Nacional de Frei Manuel do Cénaculo, objects, covering a period of one and
Évora; no.62). The dating of the panel a half thousand years, the exhibition,
and its Italian provenance support the curated by Stefanie Seeberg, presents
view that Pirez was already in Tuscany a cultural history of embroidery on
at the turn of the century, in the clothing beginning in late antique
orbit of Turino Vanni. The panel also Egypt and ending with innovative
shows that he was, as Vasari observed, uses of embroidery in today’s fashion.
influenced by Taddeo di Bartolo, and The collection’s historical artefacts
it further supports the suggestion that are complemented by selected pieces
he may have trained initially as of contemporary haute couture. In
a goldsmith. addition, fifteen living artists and
The only criticism that might designers, among them students, have
be made of this exhibition and its contributed cutting-edge pieces of
catalogue, the most important textile and fashion design, some of
addition to the literature since 1998,3 them made for the exhibition. The
is the arranging of Pirez’s œuvre by juxtaposition between historical and
place rather than date.4 Although contemporary embroidery on clothing
enlightening in many ways, this 10. Virgin and 1 Libro Nero C (account book of the private not only demonstrates the importance
approach hinders a much needed Child with angels, expenditure of the company of Francesco
of historical fashion for the study of
by Alvaro Pirez di Marco Datini); Archivio di Stato, Prato
reconstruction of Pirez’s chronology d’Évora. c.1425– Datini, n.800. art and cultural history but also reveals
2 Catalogue: Alvaro Pirez d’Évora: Um
and artistic development. Similarly, 30. Tempera and pintor português em Itália nas vésperas do the inspiration contemporary fashion
the emphasis on commercial networks gold on panel, Renascimento. 252 pp. incl. 242 col. + 10 b. & designers and artists derive from such
232 by 134 cm. w. ills. (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Polo
between Italy and Iberia, rather than (Santa Croce Museale della Toscana, Imprensa Nacional, objects. In order to create a dialogue
patronal networks within Tuscany, in Fossabanda, Lisbon, 2020), €29. ISBN 978–972–27–2816–4. between these works the objects are
Pisa; exh. Museu 3 M.T. Filieri, ed.: exh. cat. Sumptuosa
leaves intriguing questions unasked. Nacional de Arte Tabula Picta: Pittori a Lucca tra gotico e shown not in chronological order but
They include the identity of the Antiga, Lisbon). rinascimento, Lucca (Museo Nazionale Villa in six thematic sections.
Guinigi) 1998, esp. pp.277–94.
Italian audience for Pirez’s distinctive 4 The dates given in this review are those The first, ‘Clothing as a Carrier
work; the role of the Augustinians and assigned by the curators of the exhibition. of Meaning – Sign, Text and Image’,
Franciscans in securing patronage in focuses on the technique of embroidery,
Pisa and Volterra; his experience of suggesting that it allows for greater
Sienese and Parisian masters in Lucca; History in Fashion: 1500 Years freedom of artistic expression than
the attraction for patrons of a ‘foreign’ of Embroidery in Fashion other textile techniques such as
artist; and the extent, if any, of his GRASSI Museum of Applied weaving and printing. Embroidery
direct contact with Florence. Arts, Leipzig can be used like a pen and allows
These tangential points aside, 21st January 2019–29th March the inclusion of image and text
this is unequivocally an outstanding as part of the decoration, thus
exhibition, which invites close study by christiane elster enriching garments with signs,
and enlightening comparisons, and will colour and meaning. The following
surely stimulate further art-historical Focusing on embroidery on clothing, sections, ‘Inspiration Flora’ and
inquiry into one of the few artists who this exhibition provides valuable new ‘Material Diversity’, concentrate on
can legitimately claim to have a unique insights into the largely unknown the iconography and materiality
place in the history of art. and unpublished collection of the of embroidered clothing. Among

Exhibitions
The fifth section, ‘Embroidery as

a Technique for ReUse and Upcycling’,
deals with sustainability through
recycling and reuse in historical and
contemporary fashion. Whereas in the
second half of the twentieth century
the value of textiles declined in the
estimation of fashion designers and
consumers, it is now on the increase,
especially with such movements as slow
fashion. But the idea of reuse through
repair and adaptation is not new, as is
demonstrated by a decorative textile
with embroidery depicting flowers
from the late eighteenth century,
which was changed into a christening
robe at a later time (no.V.1). More
than two hundred years later, Patricia
Thoma’s wedding gowns made from
folded rubbish bags with the addition
of valuable vintage mink collar (2013;
no.V.4 and V.5) testify to a surprisingly
similar attitude to reuse.
As well as giving attention
to the links between historical
and contemporary approaches to
embroidery, the exhibition sets out
to demonstrate the workmanship
involved. There are several video
stations that show embroiderers
at work, demonstrating the main
techniques, such as flat, stem,
chain and knot stitches as well as
embroidery with sequins, glass pearls
and metal-wrapped thread. Several
works from the collection illustrate
further the different processes of
creation. For reasons of conservation
the complex techniques and costly 11. Christening played in the history of fashion. It the historical embroideries have
materials that were used to enrich robe. Germany showcases the museum’s collection to be enclosed in display cases, but
(Silesia?), c.1820.
garments was embroidery with Glass pearls of embroidered textiles from outside enlarged reproductions of details
gold, silk, sequins and glass pearls. embroidered on Europe, which the museum acquired enable a better understanding of the
Sumptuary laws ensured that such cotton, height in the wake of the world fairs in the materiality of the pieces. Pattern
64 cm. (GRASSI
precious clothing remained exclusively Museum für late nineteenth century. Embroidery books attest to the significance of
reserved for the court and the Church. Angewandte played a key role in creating the drawing. The most important example
Kunst, Leipzig;
Only from the mid-eighteenth century photograph
fashionable oriental style of the period, is the book containing instructions
onwards were the lower nobility Esther Hoyer). which responded to the Western for drawing, painting and embroidery
and the middle classes allowed to image of the Orient. The process by the draughtsman Johann Friedrich
adopt them. In the exhibition this is can be compared to today’s fashion, Netto (1756–1810), printed in 1795
represented by an early nineteenth- which adopts and adapts elements of (Anna-Amalia Bibliothek, Weimar;
century christening robe, the hemline historical embroidery. In the case of no.I.8). It contains twenty-four
of which is decorated with countless the gold embroidery on a women’s graphic models for embroidery on
handmade glass pearls depicting rose waistcoat by Hugo Boss from the clothing and accessories as well
buds and forget-me-nots (cat. no.III.12; summer collection of 2006 (no.IV.10; as an actual textile embroidered
Figs.11 and 14) Fig.13) the reference to the past is with a variety of motifs. Such
The section ‘Other Cultures: clearly deliberate, as is shown by the samplers, which were widespread
Inspirations and Exchange of comparison with a waist coat from in combination with pattern books
Ideas’ examines the important role the GRASSI collection, made in the from the sixteenth century onwards,
international and global networks Balkans around 1900 (no.IV.11; Fig.12) aided the collecting and teaching of

Exhibitions
12. Women’s techniques, motifs and ornaments. the history of making, use and discourse of material culture studies.2
waistcoat. For reasons of conservation the transmission, which is different in the With this approach, which is at once
Balkans
(Dalmatia?), historical embroideries have to case of each artefact. To make these scholarly and practical, this exhibition
c.1900. Gold- be enclosed in display cases, but stories visible and comprehensible, is an example of the potential that
wrapped thread enlarged reproductions of details Seeberg has decided to display the lies in the collections of museums
on wool, length
36.5 cm. (GRASSI enable a better understanding of the textile objects with as little change of applied art, which are often in
Museum für materiality of the pieces. and restoration as possible in order to store. Its success suggests ways that
Angewandte
Kunst, Leipzig;
The exhibition’s title refers emphasise their ‘biographies’. Making museums could experiment with
photograph not only to the creative dialogue the best of the limitations caused presenting their own collections as an
Esther Hoyer). between historical and contemporary by a modest budget, the exhibition alternative to relying on spectacular
13.Women’s embroidered clothing but also to thus contributes to the scholarly and expensive loan exhibitions.
waistcoat, by
Hugo Boss. 2006. 1 Catalogue: History in Fashion: 1500 Jahre
Gold-wrapped Stickerei in Mode. 1500 Years of Embroidery
thread on in Fashion. Edited by Stefanie Seeberg. 232 pp.
cotton, length incl. 298 col. ills. (Sandstein Verlag, Dresden,
42.5 cm. (GRASSI and GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst,
Museum für Leipzig, 2019), €38. ISBN 978–3–95498–511–1.
Angewandte 2 See P. Braun: ‘Objektbiographie.
Kunst, Leipzig; Annäherung an einen Begriff’, in idem,
photograph K. Klinger and H. Wietschel, eds:
Esther Hoyer). Objektbiographie: Ein Arbeitsbuch, Weimar
2015, pp.9–26; and D. Boschung, P.-A. Kreuz
14. Detail of and T.L. Kienlin, eds: Biography of objects.
Fig.11, showing Aspekte eines kulturhistorischen Konzepts,
the glass pearls. Paderborn 2015.
Michelangelo: Mind of the Master

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
25th February–7th June
by john marciari
In 1651 the wealthy merchant

and collector Pieter Spiering van
Silfvercroon sent to Queen Christina
of Sweden a collection of ‘the rarest

Exhibitions
and most precious selected objects, at the Albertina, Vienna, in 2010.3 In 15. Installation glorious preparatory studies for the
among them a book of drawings [. . .] an effort to raise funds so that the view of Battle of Cascina, the Sistine ceiling
Michelangelo:
by Michael Angelo’.1 Although she museum can restore Pieter Teyler’s Mind of the (cat. no.5; Fig.16) and Last Judgment,
never paid Spiering for these treasures residence, the entire set of twenty-five Master at the Medici projects at S. Lorenzo,
– his heirs later recouped only a drawings is on the road again, for an the Cleveland Florence, and the dome of St Peter’s,
Museum of Art,
modest sum for the drawings – the exhibition first shown at the Cleveland 2019–20, showing Rome. A majority of the sheets are
Queen kept them for the rest of her Museum of Art (22nd September studies related double-sided and are displayed in
to the Sistine
life, carrying them to Rome when she 2019–5th January 2020), where it was ceiling (Courtesy
the exhibition on pedestals, allowing
abdicated. She bequeathed them to seen by the present reviewer, and Cleveland both sides to be seen. This has the
Cardinal Decio Azzolini, whose heir currently on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art; effect of placing the drawings in the
photograph David
sold the collection to Livio Odescalchi; Museum, supplemented with the few Brichford). middle of each room, and the walls of
his descendants sold them to the Michelangelo drawings from those the exhibition are given over to large
Teylers Foundation in Haarlem in museums’ collections.4 photographs of related works (Fig.15).
1790. The 1,700 Italian drawings from Although Michelangelo’s Purists might object to an exhibition in
the Odescalchi Collection remain the work as a draughtsman has been which so much wall space is occupied
core of the Teylers’ holdings, and just comprehensively exhibited and by reproductions, but the emphasis
as Spiering singled out the book of studied in recent years, above all in is clearly on the drawings and the
Michelangelo drawings in his offer to the exhibition at the Metropolitan photographs seem more helpfully
Christina, so too the twenty-five sheets Museum of Art, New York, in 2017,5 the comparative than distracting.
by the master are among the Teylers’ Teylers drawings offer a more complete The high quality of the group in
proudest possessions. In 2005–06 they overview than one might expect in a Haarlem raises the question of who
were shown alongside Michelangelo relatively small exhibition. The sheets originally put it together: especially
drawings from the British Museum, span the breadth of Michelangelo’s given that Michelangelo destroyed
London, and the Ashmolean Museum, career, include examples of all his so many of his drawings, who could
Oxford, in exhibitions in London and drawing techniques and relate to his have had access to such a choice
Haarlem,2 and twenty of them were endeavours in painting, sculpture selection? It seems fairly certain that
lent to the Michelangelo exhibition and architecture; among them are Spiering acquired the book of drawings

Exhibitions
and Albertina exhibition catalogues thought to be one of those that his

respectively. Carmen Bambach also pupil Antonio Mini took to France
comments on a number of them in in 1531, although it remains unclear
the catalogue of the 2017 exhibition how it returned to Rome to be bought
at the Metropolitan Museum of by Sandrart. More to the point, the
Art, although the present project drawing is dated c.1517–23 in the
meant that they were not available present catalogue (following Frederick
for display. Modern exhibition Hartt, Joannides and Van Tuyll),
practice nonetheless demands that but others (among them Bernard
a book accompany a show like this, Berenson, Henry Thode and more
however challenging it might be to recently Thomas Pöpper) have rejected
find something new to say. And yet, the attribution to Michelangelo.9 It
given the machine of Michelangelo surely seems to be by him, but Gnaan’s
scholarship, there are illustrative proposed date of 1493–96 seems closer
comments to be made. For example, to the mark,10 although the technique
Van Tuyll’s discussion of the – pen and ink over blind stylus and
provenance of the sheets, summarised black chalk – might also be compared
above, is far more complete than to certain Battle of Cascina drawings
that in his Teylers catalogue of 2000. from around 1504.
Moreover, turning to individual works, The Teylers also owns four double-
one can see how some degree of debate sided sheets (nos.9–12) of anatomical
is practically inevitable. studies, perhaps the least exhibited and
Most of Michelangelo’s drawings discussed of the Haarlem drawings.
were purposeful, made with a specific These are generally linked to two
goal in mind, but sheets unconnected unrealised projects for anatomical
to specific projects still provoke treatises mentioned in Ascanio
question and comment. Take, for Condivi’s life of Michelangelo, and all
from the German writer and painter 16. Seated example, the Standing man, and a woman four sheets are dated to the mid-1510s
Joachim von Sandrart, who settled male nude, with hoeing (no.13; Fig.17), one of the few because some of the sketches relate
separate study
in Amsterdam in 1637, having spent of his right arm, Teylers sheets without the ‘bona Roti’ to figures on the tomb of Julius II.
time in Rome. Moreover, most of by Michelangelo. inscription. The figure of a woman is The exhibition and catalogue make
the drawings in Haarlem – and some 1511. Red chalk, quoted by Francesco Primaticcio in no mention, however, of the many
heightened with
twenty additional sheets scattered white, 27.9 by a drawing made at Fontainebleau,8 scholars who have not accepted
among various collections – are 21.4 cm. (Teylers and Michelangelo’s drawing is thus some of the anatomical drawings as
Museum,
inscribed ‘di Michel Angelo bona Roti’ Haarlem; exh.
or ‘di bona Roti’ by an earlier Italian J. Paul Getty
hand. Following a suggestion by Paul Museum, Los
Angeles).
Joannides, Carel van Tuyll proposes
in the catalogue that the collection 17. Standing
man and a
escaped Michelangelo’s bonfire because woman hoeing,
it belonged to his friend and sometime by Michelangelo.
associate Daniele da Volterra, who c.1495–1505.
Pen and brown
bequeathed it to his own assistants ink over black
Jacopo Rocchetti and Michele Alberti. chalk and
extensive stylus
Rocchetti’s collection of drawings underdrawing,
passed to the Cavaliere d’Arpino and so 21 by 23.3 cm.
it was probably Alberti’s share that Von (Teylers Museum;
Haarlem, exh.
Sandrart purchased in Rome around J. Paul Getty
1630, perhaps supplemented with a few Museum, Los
sheets from elsewhere.6 Angeles).
An exhibition focusing on works
from one collection will often offer the
opportunity for close scrutiny and new
insights, but Van Tuyll wrote detailed
entries on all these drawings in his
catalogue of the Italian Renaissance
drawings at the Teylers,7 and most
are discussed by Hugo Chapman and
Achim Gnann in the British Museum

Exhibitions
Michelangelo’s own, nor that there

are significant differences among
the sheets: no.12, for example, is at a
larger scale, on different paper and
of a lesser quality than all the others,
with a notably weak verso. Both it
and no.9 seem like workshop copies,
irreconcilable with the splendid no.11,
which must be Michelangelo’s work.
The catalogue is amply illustrated,
but a number of the drawings are
shown with the contrast somewhat
increased; more disconcertingly, a
handful are illustrated larger than
actual size, making them appear
slightly out of focus. Quibbles aside,
the exhibition provides a satisfying
introduction to Michelangelo’s
drawing practice and shows the
‘mind of the master’ working
through problems at all stages of the
preparatory process. Even those who
spent much time in the exhaustive
exhibition at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in 2017 will be
stimulated by a focused look at the
twenty-eight drawings on view, while
audiences in Cleveland and Los Feast and Fast: The Art of Food settings with imitation foods 18. Interior, with
Angeles must delight in the richest in Europe, 1500–1800 created by the historian Ivan Day, a an old woman
peeling apples,
selection of Michelangelo’s drawings Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge speciality for which he has become by David Teniers
ever presented in those cities. 26th November 2019–26 April internationally recognised in the past the Younger.
thirty years. Visitors are welcomed c.1640–60. Oil
1 K.E. Steneberg: Kristinatidens Måleri, on panel, 35.6
by philippa glanville by a Jacobean wedding banquet by 46.4. cm.
Malmö 1955, pp.82–83.
2 H. Chapman: exh. cat. Michelangelo centred on a sugar-paste model of (Fitzwilliam
Drawings: Closer to the Master, Haarlem Museum,
(Teylers Museum) and London (British
From notebooks by Isaac Newton an octagonal banqueting house, Cambridge).
Museum) 2005–06. The exhibition was recording his undergraduate modelled on the one at Melford Hall,
reviewed by Anthony Hughes in this Magazine, expenditure on ‘custardes’ and ‘cheries’ Suffolk (cat. no.10; Fig.19). These
148 (2006), pp.436–38.
3 A. Gnann: exh. cat. Michelangelo: The to anti-slavery ceramics, this exhibition little buildings were intended for
Drawings of a Genius, Vienna (Albertina) offers both visual delights and mental the service of dessert, which forms
2010. The exhibition was reviewed by Charles
Davis in this Magazine, 152 (2010), pp.828–29. stimulus. A collaboration between a recurrent and visually rich theme
4 Catalogue: Michelangelo: Mind of the Victoria Avery, Keeper of Applied Art at within the exhibition. Ceramic fruit,
Master. By Emily J. Peters and Julian
Brooks, with contributions by Edina Adam, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, for example, imitated the costly
Marjan Scharloo and Carel van Tuyll van and Melissa Calaresu, Neil Mckendrick seasonal delicacies that were an
Serooskerken. 144 pp. incl. 138 color + 5
b. & w. ills. (Cleveland Museum of Art and Yale Lecturer in History at Gonville and important element of dessert, and it
University Press, New Haven and London, Caius College, with the assistance is rewarding to see them displayed in
2019), £35. ISBN 978-0–300–24686–5.
5 C. Bambach et al.: exh. cat. Michelangelo: of colleagues from Amsterdam and their proper context.
Divine Draftsman and Designer, New York New York, it occupies five of the ‘Feast’, one of the themes of
(Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2017. The
exhibition was reviewed by Matthias Wivel Fitzwilliam’s first-floor galleries. The the exhibition, is embodied in a
in this Magazine, 160 (2018), pp.136–41. 274 exhibits chosen to illustrate the recreation of a festive table of c.1650,
6 C. van Tuyll, in Peters and Brooks, op.
cit. (note 4), pp. 31–37. On the ‘di bona Roti theme of the relationship between art dressed with a swan, a pheasant and
collector’ see P. Joannides: The Drawings and food in Europe from 1500 to 1800 other birds, with Venetian glass and
of Michelangelo and his Followers in the
Ashmolean Museum, Cambridge 2007, are almost completely drawn from Netherlandish and German silver-
pp.29–32. Cambridge or its region.1 The well-lit gilt standing cups, an ensemble that
7 C. van Tuyll van Serooskerken: The Italian
Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth displays glow against dark walls and are demonstrates the desire of hosts to
Centuries in the Teyler Museum, Haarlem, enhanced by the easy legibility of the show their command of nature and
Ghent and Doornspijk 2000.
8 Peters and Brooks, op. cit. (note 4), p.35. brief labels and large wall panels. artifice (an assurance is given that no
9 T. Pöpper, in F. Zöllner, C. Thoenes and The exhibition is opened birds were shot to create this striking
T. Pöpper: Michelangelo, 1475–1564:
Complete Works, Cologne 2007, p.753.
and punctuated by set-piece composition). A popular theme was
10 Gnann, op. cit. (note 2), p.48, cat. no.7. reconstructions of historic table the Feast of Herod, depicted here in a

Exhibitions
Norwegian bridal tapestry, woven in together with evidence of the 19. Recreation of the visual clues embedded in
1685 (no.221). recurrent appeal of vegetarianism. of an English such subjects as the Four Humours,
Renaissance
By far the largest canvas on show Religious practices make a strong sugar banquet Elements and Seasons and the Five
is the Fowl market, a studio copy after section, from charitable giving and for a wedding Senses, using, for example, rarely
Frans Snyders (no.166), which shows graces before eating to 1781 vestry c.1610, conceived seen drawings by Maarten de Vos
and made by
a dealer in game surrounded by his orders for three daily meals for the Ivan Day for (c.1587–88; nos.29–31), both exploit the
huge variety of birds and animals. poor of St Peter’s, Wisbech (no.231). A the exhibition Fitzwilliam’s collections and deploy
Feast and Fast:
The original was one of four market short article by Theodor Dunkelgrün The Art of
collective art-historical scholarship.
scenes commissioned for a Brussels in the catalogue spells out how the Food in Europe Presented with wit, pruned of
mansion c.1618–21, and embodied recognition by early modern Christian 1500–1800 at academic jargon and organised into
the Fitzwilliam
a message of peace and prosperity scholars that the Last Supper was Museum, eight richly illustrated sections, such
after incessant war. Also inspired by a Passover Seder was reflected in Cambridge, as ‘Local and global foodways’ and
the natural world is Summer, a late European art, as in a painting by 2019. ‘Food choices and diet’, the catalogue
sixteenth-century anthropomorphic Giovanni Balducci, perhaps from the reinforces the value of close attention
still life composed from vegetables, 1590s (cat. fig.6.8).2 to objects. Too often, writing about
fruit and flowers (Southampton City Among the many beautiful the decorative arts treats them merely
Art Gallery; no.257). Attributed to and rare exhibits ornamented with as examples of connoisseurship
Giovanni Stanchi after Giuseppe feasting scenes, a Limoges enamel or illustrations for a theory about
Arcimboldo, it would have formed part wedding dish of 1560 stands out design, or interprets them solely in
of a set depicting the Four Seasons. A (no.23). Although its depiction terms of conspicuous consumption.
moral about neglect and indifference of Cupid and Psyche, taken from Here their context is restored.
lurks within all this visual richness, Raphael’s fresco in the Villa Farnesina, Ceramics created to echo prevailing
in the form of rotten fruit, as in a Rome, would have been invisible popular concerns range in time from
still life by Abraham Mignon (c.1670; when the dish was dressed with an earthenware pipkin (cooking
no.217), or a cat stealing a small bird food, its underside, depicting Jupiter, pot) inscribed in cream slipware
in Snyder’s composition. Later in the would have caught the eye as it was ‘fast and pray 1650’ (no.230) to a
exhibition a display evokes an English carried aloft along the feasting table. Staffordshire harvest jug celebrating
confectioner’s premises, inspired by Its presentation in the exhibition a good harvest during the Napoleonic
James Gillray’s 1797 print of soldiers as if floating, with this lower image wars (no.44). A stoneware tureen in
refreshing themselves with ices (no.98). visible, links the dish to the adjacent the form of a trussed and roast capon
The scene allows visitors to lust after commentary. This insight, which (no.161) is a less costly version of the
Twelfth Night cakes, sugar plums and is also explored in a catalogue essay better-known Chelsea porcelain bird
sugar flowers in a sugar basket and by Deborah Krohn, is typical of the tureens. Through a 1780 tile picture
then examine the moulds and tools curators’ informed interpretation commissioned by a Dutch buckwheat
used for creating these sweet treats. of objects and contexts.3 Debates miller to celebrate his new technology
All this indulgence is counter- about the benefits and discomforts of (no.42), the economic significance of
balanced by the theme of ‘Fast’, fasting, and the helpful disentangling this innovation is explained – because

Exhibitions
of high taxes on wheat, a fifth of the Peter the Great: Collector, 20. Compass, by The show, which spills over two
grain eaten in the Netherlands at the Scholar, Artist Peter the Great. buildings and draws on the collections
1709. Ivory,
time was buckwheat. Moscow Kremlin Museums brass, paper, of twelve international museums,
Although the catalogue includes 29th November 2019–8th March iron, glass, ink, presents a history of Peter’s world in
all the traditional factual information paints, diameter over two hundred objects. They make
13.5 cm. (Dresden
for each exhibit grouped at the back, it by kamila kociałkowska Armoury, Dresden a fascinating cabinet of curiosities,
is the generosity and range of the short State Arts ranging from ancient Scythian
Collection; exh.
focused essays that make it impressive. This exhibition, commemorating Moscow Kremlin
archaeology and Qing-dynasty
The contributors’ many insights cover the 350th anniversary of Peter the Museums). clockwork to arcane astrolabes. Peter’s
such subjects as the annual swing in Great’s birth, presents the ambitious proposed Enlightenment credentials
the liturgical calendar from feast to argument that he was Russia’s first are evinced, in part, through the
fast over four hundred years and the Enlightenment monarch.1 This is objects themselves, which offer a
visual manifestations in European quite the rebrand. Peter is known, vivid inventory of his intellectual
culture of ‘the dark connotations among other things, for being an curiosity. But the thread running
of food as a dangerous gateway to amateur dentist and a deckhand on through this exhibition concerns more
iniquity’ (p.181). There is a strong Deptford’s dockyards. Conventional than the pure fact of their possession.
section on cookery books, beginning wisdom claims that Russia’s age of Uniting its assembled items is a
with A noble book off cookry ffor a prynce, a Enlightenment did not arrive until coherent argument about cultural
manuscript of c.1480–1500 (the Earl of several decades after his death, ushered policy. Peter was progressive, it is
Leicester; no.152). Increasingly from the in by Catherine the Great. The curator, claimed, because unlike rulers before
seventeenth century their authors were Olga Dmitrieva, is making a bold claim him he appreciated that power was a
female. A rare advertisement for a late here, especially as she makes it entirely performance that could be enacted
Stuart cookery school for women from through material culture. through objects and was therefore
the Pepys Library at Magdalen College personally invested in their context,
(cat. fig.5.15), and paintings by a number curation and creation.
of Dutch and Flemish artists, including The exhibition opens with a
Pieter Aertsen, Willem van Mieris, display of the Tsarist treasury, a
David Teniers the Younger (no.150; dazzling selection of high-wattage
Fig.18), Jan Steen and Jan Breughel dynastic regalia showcased to snow-
the Elder, show women selling food, blinding effect: shining crowns
shopping and preparing meals. trimmed with fox fur, ceremonial silver
Women also feature in John maces studded with turquoise (cat.
Savage’s prints after Marcellus no.59; Fig.21) and gilded sabres with
Laroon in The cryes of the city of London golden hilts. This is the aesthetics of
drawne after the life (1711; no.82), as power and, more than merely showing
Pomona in the frontispiece to Phillip Peter as a collector, it emphasises his
Miller’s Gardeners Dictionary (1731; involvement as a curator. We learn that
fig.3.30) and running stalls and shop he was the first Tsar to transform the
in Frederick MacKenzie’s view of the Royal treasury into a proto-museum.
weekly Cambridge market in 1841 Under previous rulers, the Russian
(no.211). Winged females tempting crown jewels were in storage when
Christ to the table in William Blake’s not in use, but Peter – inspired by his
watercolour of Christ refusing Satan’s ‘Grand Embassy’ tour of Europe –
banquet (c.1816–18; no.212) show that ordered them to be placed permanently
temptation took many forms. The on view for his court and its visitors.
catalogue essays conclude with ‘Eating This intuition for publicising
Words: Food and Literature’, a witty power through permanent display
contribution by Jason Scott Warren, a extended to his treatment of his
lecturer in English at Cambridge, who diplomatic gifts, which were exhibited
in the course of only a page ranges from in Peter’s court. The Tsar received
Shakespeare to Proust. many precious objects from envoys
1 Catalogue: Feast and Fast The Art of Food
travelling between monarchs,
in Europe 1500–1800. Edited by Victoria Avery amassing a trove of gilded glassware
and Melissa Calaresu. (Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, and Philip Wilson, London, 2019),
with mythological scenes and
£25. ISBN 978–1–78130 –102–9. Unless stated Ming-era carved jade. Realising that
otherwise, the exhibits referred to in this review
are from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
this ambassadorial exchange was
2 T. Dunkelgrün: ‘The Last Supper as a Jewish evidence of international allegiance
Passover Seder’, in ibid., pp.186–87.
3 D. Krohn: ‘Gastronomic contexts and
and intellectual networking, Peter
cultures’, in ibid., pp.130–37. understood that it was essential these

Exhibitions
objects be kept on view. A snapshot of 21. Ceremonial Scythian artefacts), Peter introduced a catalogue notes (p.147). To demonstrate
his international relations is conveyed mace. Turkey, set of laws in 1717–18 demanding that this, the exhibition includes his
second half of
through a large brass ewer and basin the 17th century. these ancient works were safeguarded. Florentine turning lathe, a huge
given by Charles II of Great Britain Silver, copper, These were the first decrees ever issued machine standing over two metres tall.
in 1664 and several showcases of jade, turquoise, in Russia regarding the preservation of The objects Peter created on it are also
wood, forging,
Chinese porcelain, silk tapestries and chasing, gilding, national heritage, leading the curators shown, including a handmade compass
lacquered tableware. More than merely incrustation, of the present exhibition to conclude encased in an ivory box (no.97; Fig.20).
length 73 cm.
a trove of antiques, this collection is a (Moscow Kremlin
that the concept of cultural legacy The accomplishment involved in its
masterclass in early modern marketing, Museums). itself originated with Peter. creation, with skilled details which
proclaiming Russia as a rapidly 22. Tracery belt Perhaps the most surprising include a screw cap topped with a
modernising state with a diplomatic plate with dragons. part of Peter’s personality revealed medallion embossed with a portrait
mission that extended eastwards to the Siberia, 2nd–1st through this exhibition, however, is of a wreathed Tsar, is startling since it
centuries BC.
Orient and westwards to Europe. Gold cornelian, its final category: artist. It is a little- reveals that this larger-than-life figure
The second part of the exhibition glass, black stone, known fact that as well as collecting was, in his free time, a hobbyist.
concerns Peter as a scholar. His casting, inlay,
9 by 15.1 cm.
and curating works of art, Peter also A potential criticism of this
academic interactions include a letter (State Hermitage created them. On show is a drypoint exhibition is that the Kremlin is
from Isaac Newton and a report by Museum, St etching that he made in 1698, showing predictably selective in its praise of
Petersburg; exh.
Gottfried Leibniz, both regarding the Moscow Kremlin an allegorical winged figure holding Peter as a creative ‘titan’ and a cultural
development of the sciences in Russia. Museums). aloft a cross while standing on ‘trailblazer’, while omitting reference
As it is conventionally Catherine who architectural ruins (no.79). He was to his many flaws (no mention is
is famed for her correspondence with artistically gifted; the drawings reveal made of his forays into filicide). The
major Enlightenment thinkers, it is Peter’s accomplished, if unrefined, catalogue essays somewhat compensate
illuminating to see that the paper trail skill in handling the human form and for this, complicating the picture
in fact goes back to Peter. The curators in its high-contrast cross-hatching. by acknowledging that Peter was
further claim that Peter preceded His commitment to craftsmanship a ‘destroyer as much as a creator’
Catherine in launching Russia’s first meant that he ‘maintained an interest (p.12). Yet one could argue that this
cultural policies. This point is made in technological innovations and whitewashing is in itself a conceptual
through a case study of his collection of equipped his workshops to the highest continuation of the exhibition’s main
Scythian gold. An array of ornamental contemporary standards’, as the premise. This show is about the skilful
objects belonging to Eurasian nomadic
nobility and dating as far back as
the fifth century BC are on display.
These constituted the country’s first
archaeological collection and include
gold belt plates (no.182; Fig.22), spiral
bracelets and torqs, carved with
mythological creatures and animalistic
motifs and all believed by their
makers to be possessed of talismanic
properties. Peter was made aware of
the value of Scythian gold only when
touring the Netherlands. Here, he
learnt that the mayor of Amsterdam,
Nicolaes Witsen, was collecting and
trading in the ancient treasures of
the Russian steppe. Realising that his
national heritage was being stolen
before his eyes (as well as acquisition
by European intellectuals, widespread
looting throughout Siberia was
threatening to disperse the remaining

Exhibitions
use of art as propaganda, about how the north, the building rises elegantly the history of the institution, another 23. Installation
material culture can be used to brand out of the waters of the canal, but the one illuminates casting processes, view of Near Life:
The Gipsformerei
national identity. This was as true in view from the south is less felicitous. including gelatine and piece mould – 200 Years
Peter’s lifetime as it is in his legacy. Here, the building with its signature techniques. This introductory area is Gipsformerei
That the contemporary Kremlin rows of thin vertical supports obstructs situated in the middle of the exhibition at James-
Simon-Galerie,
continues to use its collection for the the view of the more elaborate archi- space that it subdivides, creating two Berlin, 2019–20
same purpose only proves the power tecture of the Neues Museum without main areas on either side. Meanwhile, (photograph David
von Becker).
of these objects and confirms their really asserting itself. Access is from the open shelving grants views across
enduring ability to rebrand Russian this side, either on the first floor via an all sections towards strategically
rulers as enlightened individuals. external staircase or on the ground floor positioned exhibits. Among these are
via a piazzetta between the gallery and works by modern and contemporary
1 Catalogue: Petr Pervyii: Kollektsioner,
issledovatel’, khudozhnik [Peter the Great: the Neues Museum. The exhibition artists that visually bring to the fore
Collector, scholar, artist]. Edited by Olga area is an expansive rectangular space the issues addressed in these sections,
Dmitrieva and Vasily Novoselov. 335 pp.
incl. 232 col. ills. (Moscow Kremlin Museums, below ground without natural light. signalling their continuing relevance.
Moscow, 2019), 2000 rb. ISBN 978–5– The inaugural exhibition in Throughout the exhibition two
88678–363–6.
this space marks the two hundredth complementary strategies – engaging
anniversary of the foundation of the viewers through striking objects
Gipsformerei (plaster cast workshop) and arrangements, and providing
Near Life: The Gipsformerei – in Berlin Charlottenburg, which is guidance through extensive texts –
200 Years of Casting Plaster the oldest institution in the Staatliche are successfully used in tandem.
James-Simon-Galerie, Berlin Museen. On entering, visitors find The subject of the exhibition,
30th August 2019–1st March themselves in a space fenced off from the complex relationship between
the rest of the gallery by heavy duty plaster casts and living matter, allows
by eckart marchand shelving (Fig.23). Part of the exhibition the organisers to present a wide range
design, the shelves reference those of works while addressing an issue
Opened in 2018, the James-Simon- on which the Gipsformerei stores its central to the reception of plaster
Galerie is the latest addition to moulds, master copies and workshop casts throughout the centuries: the
Museum Island in Berlin. Situated tools. Never intended for display, contrast between plaster’s association
between Spreekanal, the Pergamon- the master copies are kept for the with death and the casts’ striking
museum and the Neues Museum, making of new moulds. Here they representational power. The imposing
and designed by the British architect form the core of the exhibition. At cast of a dead crocodile in a lively
David Chipperfield, it provides foyers, first the display looks random, with pose introduces the first section,
cloakrooms, a shop, restaurant and objects of different subjects, sizes and on casts after animals and plants.
auditorium for these museums as well patinas juxtaposed, but eventually the Spectacular loans of works by Andrea
as a gallery for temporary exhibitions. attentive visitor discerns thematic Riccio (1470–1532), Wenzel Jamnitzer
Approached from the Bode Museum in sequences. One such sequence tells (1508–85) and Bernard Palissy (1510–89)

Exhibitions
from museums in Vienna, Nuremberg sculpture. This practice has been

and Hamburg as well as other met with negative responses from art
Berlin Museums outline the history critics since the Renaissance, as the
of such casts in various materials, mechanical reproduction appeared
while Pearlescence (2016) by Maria to be in conflict with notions of art as
Volokhova, two white porcelain vases an intellectual endeavour. Difficult to
moulded after the head of a monkfish, illustrate using only plaster casts, this
introduces issues of inside and outside, issue defies the organisers’ otherwise
negative and positive forms. Computer- successful approach. Moreover, the
generated three-dimensional prints insistence on hierarchical distinctions
of the head and skull of a popular between art and mechanical
polar bear formerly in Berlin’s Zoo reproductions is difficult to grasp in
illustrate both the analytical potential an exhibition designed to undermine
and representational shortcomings of them. The display closes with a series
this technique when compared with of casts after masterpieces, hinting
analogue ones. at plaster casts’ powerful role in the
Turning to casts of the human formation of canons of Western art.
body, the exhibition confronts a The catalogue contains introductory
problematic chapter in the history texts on the Gipsformerei, its
of the Gipsformerei, so-called collections and the issues raised in
‘ethnographic casts’. Taken from the exhibition.1 It provides additional
people in German colonies around source material, including interviews
the turn of the century, these were with the exhibiting artists, lays out
traded as specimens of racial types. the exhibition strategy in terms of
The display of negative moulds taken design and didactic concepts and
from master models rather than provides a list of works. A technical
the models themselves is sensitive glossary reflects the knowledge of the
towards the involuntary sitters’ rights workshop team. Berlin Museums are to
while visualising absence through from the last days of the Second World 24. Wall in be congratulated on the bold decision
the negative imprint. Historical War, appears from a distance to be an the studio, to open their new gallery with this
by Adolph
photographs of casting campaigns in elegant cast of Classical architecture Menzel. 1852. unconventional, thought-provoking
Africa, together with sound recordings, closing the section. Seen from nearby it Oil on paper and visually exciting exhibition.
document the violence inflicted on reveals itself as a negative form, as the on panel, 61 by
44 cm. (Alte 1 Catalogue: Nah am Leben: 200 Jahre
these individuals. Originally taken to building’s deep ‘wounds’ project into Nationalgalerie, Gipsformerei. Edited by Christina Haak, Miguel
record voices and languages threatened the beholder’s space. Thus, the work Berlin; photo- Helfrich and Veronika Tocha. 264 pp. incl. 260
graph Jörg P. col. ills. (Prestel, Munich, London and New
by extinction, these recordings enable relates closely to the themes of Anders). York, and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2019),
us today to hear the sitters’ own violence in the surrounding section. €42. ISBN 978–3–7913–5939–7. English edition:
accounts of the casting process. Modern An entirely different experience is Near Life: The Gipsformerei – 200 Years of
Casting Plaster. ISBN 978–3–7913–5940–3.
casts on loan from Pompeii reproducing granted by a collection of death and life
those made by pouring plaster into masks of German dignitaries, which
the voids left by human remains after celebrate the individual and hark back
the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 to ancient traditions. Dora Maar
have an enormous emotive power and On the other side of the shelf, Tate Modern, London
raise ethical issues of their own. Asta the main theme is the study and 20th November 2019–15th March
Gröting’s Mausoleum, a thin silicone representation of the human body
mould taken in 2016 from the façade of in art, from the academic tradition by joanna pawlik
a Berlin monument, with bullet holes to the present. Master models for life
casts sold by the Gipsformerei and It may have taken the best part of a
the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum century, but in the past decade or so the
of Applied Art) are complemented role played by women in the Surrealist
WHAT’S ON by sales catalogues, eighteenth- movement as artists, publishers,
For a searchable calendar century prints of academic drawing translators and supporters has finally
of current and forthcoming classes, nineteenth-century paintings, come into institutional, academic
exhibitions worldwide, see the including three by Edouard Joseph and popular focus. As the practice of
What’s On section of our website,
www.burlington.org.uk. Details of
Dantan and Adolph Menzel’s Wall women artists is being afforded ever
forthcoming exhibitions can be in the studio (Fig.24) from Berlin, as more nuanced critical attention, the
posted on the calendar by using well as contemporary works. This productive networks of friendship
the online form. is followed by a section on the use around it are being written into our
of casts after life in naturalistic understanding of the history of the

Exhibitions
movement. Tate Modern’s ambitious 25. Man looking of twentieth-century art and visual was often misleading, since Maar
retrospective of Dora Maar (1907–97) inside a sidewalk culture. The tension between these two usually directed their collaborations.
inspection door,
coincides with the launch of The London, by Dora aims is both productive and unresolved. Similarly, the exhibition’s presentation
Debutante, a crowd-funded magazine Maar. c.1935. The exhibition consists of nine of Maar’s involvement with Surrealism
that aims to bring together a new Gelatin silver rooms that take a roughly chronological also qualifies generalisations about
print, 30.5 by
movement of feminist-Surrealists 23.8 cm. (Private route through her career, beginning the extent to which the movement
(and their allies) in curatorial print collection; with portraits taken by or of her and defined or even informed her practice
courtesy art2art
and online collaboration. The title, Circulating
finishing with a room that brings to during the 1930s. In particular, two
taken from Leonora Carrington’s Exhibitions; © light her experiments with cameraless rooms that trace her dialogues with the
short story The Debutante (1939), is ADAGP, Paris photography, which were discovered movement demonstrate that Maar’s
and DACS,
part of a wry strategy that suggests London 2019; only after her death in 1997. In the involvement was based on a careful
frustration at how many times exh. Tate room ‘On Assignment’, which features interpretation of Surrealism, not its
women Surrealists needed to ‘launch’ Modern, London). examples of her commercial practice, wholesale adoption. For instance,
themselves in order to be recognised. including fashion plates and cosmetic Maar’s photograph Untitled (Sphinx
This new magazine construes advertisements, much is rightly made Hôtel) (c.1935; pl.95) offers a view of
Surrealism’s legacy for women as of the fact that the Kéfer-Dora Maar the building that is different from
a decidedly collective endeavour, credit line, which acknowledged Maar’s the better-known image of the same
something that the exhibition and collaborations with Kéfer in 1931–35, building by Jacques-André Boiffard,
Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s catalogue
essay also acknowledge by tracing the
significance of Maar’s circle of friends
during the 1930s, which included
Jacqueline Lamba, Nusch Eluard
and Lee Miller, to her personal and
professional development.1 Maar’s
portrait of Lamba, Dawn (Aube) (1935;
cat. pl.142) staring wistfully out of a
derelict building, is singled out as being
particularly important to rethinking
the personal relationships that shaped
Maar’s practice. The show works
hard to disaggregate Maar from other
groupings or partnerships that have
historically been permitted to dominate
or occlude accounts of her practice,
such as her studio and business partner
Pierre Kéfer or her involvement with
the Surrealist group during the 1930s,
so its willingness to acknowledge
the sustenance provided by female
friendship is perhaps anomalous but
most welcome.
The exhibition is not the first
retrospective of Maar’s work – she is
not a debutante in this sense – but, like
Carrington’s story, Tate’s presentation
of her work scrutinises the conditions
under which women artists might be
displayed to, and consumed by, the
public. The exhibition exploits the
advantages of a monographic show for
a feminist treatment of a women artist
but also struggles with the limitations
of the format. It labours to show the
inimitability and integrity of Maar’s
practice, as befitting masculinist
models of originality, but also to
track her extensive contact with, and
contributions to, a broad spectrum

Exhibitions
which was included in the pages of and her practice. It makes clear her
André Breton’s Nadja (1928) to illustrate awareness of not only the threats posed
one of the sites of his doomed love to the individual by totalitarianism in
affair with the eponymous character. the 1930s, but also the desirability of
Maar’s photograph is closely cropped, solidarity and collective identification.
enabling the occupants of the rooms, Given the overshadowing of
who are standing near the windows or women’s art by their ‘significant’ others
on the balconies, to be seen more easily. and the cultural capital generated
The eerie, depopulated urban spaces of through affiliations with avant-garde
Paris that feature in Boiffard’s images movements such as Surrealism, the
are themselves made strange by Maar’s exhibition’s ambition to isolate Maar’s
photograph. As Dawn Ades observes practice and insist on its singularity
in her catalogue essay on the artist’s is fully understandable. Nonetheless,
street photography (Fig.25), Maar subtly the exhibition makes it impossible to
critiques Boiffard’s preference for the avoid thinking of Maar in the context
streets, cafés and hotels of Paris to be of Picasso. Given the longstanding
desolate, the better to foreground and heteronormative, patriarchal
flatter the intensity and singularity of frameworks that have shaped the
the male protagonist’s experiences of reception of women Surrealist artists,
Surrealist ‘mad love’. Appropriately, perhaps it is difficult to imagine
the room ‘Everyday Strange’, a term otherwise, but the exhibition leaves
only indirectly derived from Bretonian the impression that more ‘Debutantes’
Surrealism, gives a sense of how are still sorely needed.
her work defamiliarises Surrealism
1 Catalogue: Dora Maar. Edited by Damarice
itself, even as it makes a significant Amao, Amanda Maddox and Karolina Zieblinska-
contribution to the movement. Maar’s show of resistance to the impact 26. The Lewandowska. 208 pp. incl. 240 col. + b. & w.
The exhibition navigates a little of Picasso’s complicated love life on her Conversation, ills. (Tate Publishing, London, 2019), £40.
by Dora Maar. ISBN 978–1–84976–686–9.
less successfully the impact and legacy has not been taken as the structuring 1937. Oil on
of Maar’s affair with Picasso, her principle for the room. canvas, 162
one-time partner, and perhaps the The room ‘On the Street’, featuring by 130 cm.
(Fundación
most frequently cited territorialising Maar’s documentary photography, Almine y Bernard Canada and Impressionism:
influence on the production and is perhaps the most challenging and Ruiz-Picasso New Horizons
para el Arte,
reception of her work. Did it really provocative in the show. Although Madrid; courtesy
Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne
need to devote so much space to her well-known witty, innovative FABA; © ADAGP, 24th January–24th May
him, including three of his portraits and sometimes discombobulating Paris and DACS,
London 2019;
of her, which seemed to reintroduce photomontage works are well- photograph Marc by dominik brabant
the notion of woman artist as muse represented in the exhibition, her Domage; exh.
and therefore as a source of cultural reportage work from her travels around Tate Modern This exhibition closes a gap in the
London).
and erotic capital for the modernist Spain (1933) and England (1934), shown contemporary understanding of
artist? Similarly, it includes numerous here, make the timeliest contribution Impressionism in an informative and
iterations of Maar’s photographs of to contemporary practice. Maar’s visually stimulating way. Organised
the production of Picasso’s Guernica, photographs of people in search of by the National Gallery of Canada,
and although the exhibition includes solace and succour amid the political, Ottawa and curated by Katerina
a recording of a conversation between social and economic crisis of the Atanassova, the exhibition opened at
Maar and Frances Morris (1990), 1930s resonate in our own context of the Kunsthalle Munich (19th June–17th
in which Maar discloses, rather rising populism, ethno-nationalism November 2019), where it was seen
equivocally, that her photography and Brexit. From the photograph by this reviewer.1 With a display of
influenced his ‘masterpiece’, these of a destitute woman selling lottery 120 paintings – many of which are
seven photographs in the exhibition tickets (1934; pl.66) to another of a from private collections and have not
cast her more as scribe rather street evangelist holding a sign reading previously been shown in public – the
than agent of Modernism. Maar’s ‘Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is exhibition adopts a chronological
devastating work The conversation at Hand’ (1934; pl.70), the subjugation approach to presenting the history of
(ex-catalogue; Fig.26) represents of the individual in the name of church, the engagement of Canadian artists
Maar’s own narration of the impact family and state is laid bare. The with the Parisian art scene.
of Picasso’s concurrent relationship attention paid to these documentary From the 1880s Canadian artists
with Marie-Thérèse Walter. Whereas photographs, which acknowledge her increasingly visited Paris, sometimes
Walter is depicted frontally, Maar has contribution to anti-fascist grass-roots staying for years. They regularly
her back to the viewer and her face is politics, complicates the exhibition’s returned home for visits and many
completely obscured. It is a shame that efforts to otherwise individualise Maar settled back permanently. In Paris

Exhibitions
they usually studied at such academies

as the Académie Julian and the
Académie Colarossi, which were open
to foreigners and women. Initially,
however, Canadian artists, who often
stayed among their own communities,
did not necessarily choose the
Impressionists as their lodestar but
rather academic figurative painters
or the older artists of the Barbizon
school. Using the example of thirty-
six artists, the exhibition traces their
at first tentative, and from the 1890s
increasingly consistent, adoption of
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist
motifs and techniques. Those
among them who were particularly
ambitious, such as Maurice Cullen
(1866–1934) or James Wilson Morrice
(1865–1924), were faced with the
double challenge of having to succeed
in the French Salons and then
advertising their new Paris-taught
skills at home, especially in Montreal
and to a lesser extent in Toronto.
As well as being displayed in
chronological sequence, the paintings
are also grouped into thematic
sections. These themes are further worldwide Impressionism that is not On the other hand, William Brymner’s 27. Landscape
discussed in essays in the catalogue, exclusively focused on French painting Border of the Forest of Fontainebleau (1885; with poppies,
by William Blair
which are complemented by a prologue as the paragon.3 Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s Bruce. 1887.
by Adam Gopnik, who sings the A central subject of the exhibition University, Kingston; no.1) recalls Oil on canvas,
praises of a joyous and light-flooded is landscape painting, the genre more strongly the Barbizon tradition. 27.3 by 33.8 cm.
(Art Gallery of
global Impressionism, and an epilogue preferred by Canadian artists. Among Other works offer a rather conservative Ontario, Toronto;
by Tracey Lock, who compares the examples of their depictions of naturalism, as practised in France by exh. Fondation
de l’Hermitage,
Impressionism in Canada with that French landscapes, Landscape with Jules Bastien-Lepage, or echo James Lausanne).
of Australia.2 Lock adheres to Norma poppies by William Blair Bruce (cat. no.5; McNeill Whistler. As a successful
28. The picnic,
Broude’s cosmopolitan model of a Fig.27) is clearly a homage to Monet. American with close connections to by Henri Beau.
Europe, Whistler became a guiding 1904–05. Oil on
figure for some Canadian artists. canvas, 72.5 by
92.5 cm. (Musée
Views of modern city life, a subject national des
that Manet and Degas introduced beaux-arts du
to Impressionism, were more rarely Quebec; exh.
Fondation de
chosen as a subject, but among the l’Hermitage,
examples in the exhibition are Paul Lausanne).
Peel’s sun-flooded Luxembourg Gardens
(1890; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto;
no.11) and Morrice’s Quai des Grands-
Augustins (1904; Musée d’Orsay, Paris;
no.10), whose composition with large
areas of graduated browns and ochres
and anonymous figures recalls Whistler
and the Nabis.
In 1913 the critic Charles Louis
Borgmeyer wrote of Morrice that he
was ‘not a Master Impressionist, he is
a legitimate successor of theirs. Not
that he decomposes his tones, or uses
the “comma” of Claude Monet, or the

Exhibitions
29. The train, superposed touches of Cézanne. He is from patriarchal reification. In Florence and the relentless encroachment of
winter, by too personal for that’.4 This assessment Carlyle’s The studio (1903; Woodstock modernity was gradually abandoned
Clarence Gagnon.
c.1913–14. Oil on could be transposed to other artists, Art Gallery, Ontario; no.65), for by a group of artists formed in
canvas, 56 by such as Henri Beau, whose idyllic, example, the reclining model, who 1910 and known since 1920 as the
71 cm. (Private almost Pointillist The picnic (no.16; has just interrupted her reading, gazes Group of Seven. Wanting to liberate
collection; exh.
Fondation de Fig.28) openly references Manet’s straight out of the painting at the artist themselves from French models,
l’Hermitage, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863; Musée or the viewer – perhaps a late echo of they preferred a more nationalistic
Lausanne).
d’Orsay) but without adopting the Manet’s Olympia (1863; Musée d’Orsay). image of Canada, realised in paintings
latter’s scandalous combination of a A strength of the exhibition is with Nordic connotations, in which
nude with modern figures. the opportunity it offers to examine strong colour contrasts are married
Further sections cover subjects how the artists of a country that with decorative-ornamental surfaces
preferred by Canadian artists. Among was united only in the wake of the that depict a landscape untouched by
these are views of the coast, including Confederation in 1867 sought to use human hands (1915; National Gallery
the beaches of Brittany, and Venice, the pictorial means of Impressionism of Canada, Ottawa; no.111). However,
painted by artists travelling in the (and its successor styles) to depict the the exhibition demonstrates astutely
footsteps of the French Impressionists, distinctive character of the Canadian that the works of the Group of Seven
or the representation of children, often landscape in painting. Despite the became possible only on the basis of
shown playing or performing simple challenge posed by painting en plein the achievements of the previous,
tasks, either outdoors or in sheltered air in the weather conditions of Impressionist generation of Canadian
middle-class surroundings. A final the Canadian winter, Cullen and artists. In her catalogue essay, Gerta
section covers the role of women. As Morrice worked together at Saint- Moray describes the attitudes of
subjects for paintings they were often Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec, creating the later artists as ‘modernist anti-
shown pursuing quiet activities such landscapes in which the snow – with modernism’ (p.115) and discusses the
as needlework or reading. As Anna its diverse shades – became the central current debates surrounding this
Hudson argues in the catalogue, such motif. Nonetheless, within this search group of artists and their quest for
artists as Peel and Franklin Brownell for a national identity the legacy an autonomous Canadian art.
portrayed women in their role as of French Impressionism remained Being partly an example of
artistic muses or emphasised their strong, as is shown, for example, by international cultural transfer
physical beauty. Female artists, on the Clarence Gagnon’s The train, winter and partly a search for national
other hand, such as the little-known (no.99; Fig.29), which shows a sunlit identity, Canadian Impressionism
Helen McNicoll, sought new ways of valley crossed by a steam locomotive. incorporates deep-rooted tensions.
representing women by moving away This visual layering of unspoilt nature In the exhibition, which is intended
to appeal to the broader public, these
are evident only on close study of the
works and with a knowledge of the
context. What is more important,
however, is that the exhibition and
the catalogue create an awareness
of the artistic riches of Canadian
Impressionism and, at the same time,
open promising new perspectives
for future work on the subject.
1 The exhibition will travel to the Musée
Fabre, Montpellier (13th June–27th
September) and to the National Gallery
of Canada, Ottawa (30th October 2020–
21st March 2021).
2 Catalogue: In einem neuen Licht: Kanada
und der Impressionismus, 1880–1930. By
Katerina Atanassova. 256 pp. incl. 300 col.
ills. (Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, 2019), £33. ISBN
978–3–89790–548–1. English edition: Canada
and Impressionism: New Horizons. ISBN 978–
3–89790–547–4. The literature on Canadian
Impressionism is limited; see, for example, C.
Lowrey, ed.: exh. cat. Visions of Light and Air.
Canadian Impressionism, 1885–1920, Montreal
(Musée de Quebec), and touring, 1995; and
A.K. Prakash: Impressionism in Canada: A
Journey of Rediscovery, Stuttgart 2015.
3 N. Broude, ed.: World Impressionism:
The International Movement, 1860–1920,
New York 1990.
4 C.L. Borgmeyer: ‘The master
Impressionists (Chapter VII)’, The Fine
Arts Journal 28 (1913), p.347.

Exhibitions
Defiant Muses: Delphine Chantal Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger and 30. Still from from its female maker, who translated
Seyrig and the Feminist Video Babette Mangolte – all of whom have Last Year at her personal experience into a political
Marienbad,
Collectives in France in the recently received art world attention. directed by Alain image, but arose in relation to a political
1970s and 1980s The success of the exhibition is a result Resnais. 1961 (exh. movement. Galleries and museums
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte of the split focus on one woman’s Museo Nacional should be the spaces in which we
Centro de Arte
Reina Sofia, Madrid politicisation and the autonomous Reina Sofia, encounter this material, even if it
25th September 2019–23rd March groups that helped transform that Madrid). can be read as archival, non-aesthetic,
politicisation into a movement. or not-art.
by amy tobin ‘Defiant Muses’ is a complex This is not to suggest that the
exhibition. It is as much an account of exhibits in ‘Defiant Muses’ are without
Delphine Seyrig (1932–90) has been the organisation of a social movement, formal interest. The videos produced
a name to conjure with, particularly and the social history of feminism in by the Insoumuses are remarkably rich
for the French New Wave directors France, as it is a display of creative and in creative experiment. Take SCUM
such as Alain Resnais, who cast her as visual practice. It is, therefore, distinct Manifesto (1976), in which Seyrig and
the quintessential femme fatale. This from the many exhibitions on feminist- Roussopoulos sit opposite one another.
exhibition, curated by Nataša Petrešin- influenced practice that prioritise the As Seyrig reads from an out-of-print
Bachelez and Giovanna Zapperi, aims artist, or the art, over the political French translation of Valerie Solanas’s
to puncture the myth of Resnais’s context. There are good arguments for infamous book, Roussopoulos types it
Seyrig and illuminate the activist, taking a more traditional approach: out, before stopping in a rejection of
feminist Seyrig and her collaborators in art museums and galleries have a feminised labour. The video becomes a
the video collective Insoumuses, which responsibility to exhibit art. And yet the source for the recirculation of this radical
translates imperfectly into English as women’s liberation movement and the text, revoiced by a famous femme fatale,
‘defiant muses’. feminist politics shaped by it used group as a means through which to renounce
From the first room of this large work to interrogate established ideas reproductive work. Another example
exhibition onwards, the popular image about visual culture and the individual is the funny Maso and Miso Go Boating
of Seyrig is deconstructed. Stills from auteur or artist. Groups of artists, art (1976), which pulls apart a national
her films and a large projection of a six- workers and filmmakers established broadcast from the previous year titled
minute clip from Resnais’s Last Year at new spaces to discuss and exhibit work, ‘Thank God! It’s over’, celebrating the
Marienbad (1961; Fig.30), show her playing and through this new ideas, processes, end of the United Nation’s International
different versions of the same role, one form and content emerged in visual Year of the Woman. Perhaps the most
typified by the elegant but awkward culture. What is now labelled ‘feminist formally ambitious of the videos in the
sloping walk of her unnamed character art’ or ‘feminist visual culture’ did not, exhibition, it shows the Insoumuses
in Marienbad. In the accompanying as is often suggested, emerge solely intervening in the television programme,
catalogue we learn of Seyrig’s discomfort
in embodying this role and her desire
to escape typecasting,1 but, even at this
early point in the exhibition, footage
of Seyrig talking with Agnès Varda or
critiquing French government ministers
in a televised debate on the issue of
abortion announce that Seyrig was
always more than just an actress. Her
irritation with her lot as a woman was
longstanding, but later given form by the
Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF)
in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The curators’ decision to focus on
Seyrig allows them to tell a personal
story of feminist politicisation and
its ramifications for visual culture.
Seyrig goes from being the passive
subject to the active maker of images
through collaborative and collective
work with other women, whose stories
are told here. They include Carole
Roussopoulus and Ioanna Wieder,
as well as those who became the
subject of Seyrig’s videomaking and
her cinematic collaborators such as

Exhibitions
claims made by the exhibition’s curators

and the contributors to the catalogue
about the experimental nature of the
Insoumuses’ videos, particularly those
focusing on international struggles
and Roussopoulos’ skill-sharing with
the Black Panthers. But the more
fundamental question remains: could
we ‘imagine what a decolonial narrative
of French feminist cinema would
like?’ The curators make a great effort
to assert Seyrig’s support for the
struggles of both feminists of colour
in France and transnational feminist
organising, but Vergès demands
greater attention to diversifying
the producers, rather than only the
subjects, of representation.
‘Defiant Muses’ ends with Seyrig’s
feminist legacy, her founding in 1982
providing commentary on the misogyny broadcast (which represents the media), 31. Still from of the Centre audiovisuel Simone
of the show’s guests and replaying and the platitudinous ‘Year of the Calamity Jane de Beauvoir, where the works of
and Delphine
fragments of speech, emphasising the Woman’ (standing in for international Seyrig: A the Insoumuses, Seyrig and other
ridiculousness of the rhetoric. The video politics) is direct rather than discursive. Story, directed feminist filmmakers are preserved.
is also a critique of Françoise Giroud, Through the work of the Insoumuses, by Babette But it is a new work by Seyrig’s friend
Mangolte. 1990
the French Minister for the Condition this exhibition reminds us that the MLF (exh. Museo Mangolte, incorporating rushes from
of Women (1974–76), who appears on and international women’s liberation was Nacional Centro film they shot in the United States
the television show as a respondent to more activist and more militant than de Arte Reina
Sofia, Madrid).
in the 1980s, that provides the most
the chauvinist guests; for the most part academic feminist legacies may suggest. eloquent reflection on Seyrig’s legacy
she simply agrees with them, laughing Another important point brought (Fig.31). The footage was filmed during
along. With its puns and playful use of out in both the exhibition and the a trip the pair undertook to research
language, this video comes the closest in publication is the conflicts within a film adaptation of the diaries of the
formal terms to the more famous ecriture feminism. In 1977 Seyrig made and American frontierswoman Calamity
feminine of philosophers such as Hélène circulated the video It is not hot. A series Jane. Seyrig looks poised and beautiful
Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva, of testimonies, it denounced a group as she approaches the manicured
and yet the lacerating critique of Giroud of women around Antoinette Fouque houses of the women who preserve
(who represents the state), the television and the publishing house Editions de the fragments of Calamity Jane’s
femmes for their elitism, defence of the history; she listens to them attentively,
gender binary and for what Fouque and questions them and reflects that she
her circle had elsewhere advocated as cares little if the diaries are authentic
‘femininity beyond feminism’.2 The voice or a fabrication. The Calamity Jane
of dissent within feminism has long production, in which she would have
been absent from most discussions of starred, never went ahead, but in this
the MLF and other women’s liberation film, through Seyrig’s tracing of the
movements, and the inclusion of It is not infamously enigmatic figure and her
hot in this show is a timely reminder, friend’s considered cinematography,
like Maso and Miso go boating, of the the two characters come together:
complicity of privileged women in fierce, defiant women, pushing at
oppression. Seyrig does not escape the boundaries of representation
criticism either. Françoise Vergès’s and lived reality.
essay in the catalogue offers a broader
1 Catalogue: Defiant Muses. Edited by Nataša
analysis of Seyrig and the Insoumuses Petrešin-Bachelez and Giovanna Zapperi. 235
For more writing on recent art,
in relation to post-colonialism.3 pp. incl. numerous col. ills. (Museo Reina Sofía,
Madrid, 2019), £35. ISBN 978–84–8026–600–0.
visit Burlington Contemporary, Addressing issues that are glossed over 2 G. Zapperi and E. Leibovici: ‘Maso and Miso
our online platform for the in the interpretative material included in the land of men’s rights’, e-flux 92 (June
2018), available at https://www.e-flux.com/
latest research and reviews in the exhibition, she asks: ‘Where do journal/92/205771/maso-and-miso-in-the-land-
on contemporary art: French feminism and the cinema of of-men-s-rights/, accessed 15th January 2020,.
contemporary.burlington.org.uk 3 F. Vergès: ‘To be a woman, not a vision:
the decolonisation struggles intersect?’. Delphine Seyrig’s feminist quest’, Petrešin-
This is particularly important given the Bachelez Zapperi, op. cit. (note 1), pp.134–162.

Books
A publication on Harvard’s ancient excavations. The definition of jade in ancient
China is broader than that in the rest of the
world, where it is confined to nephrite and
Chinese jades reveals the important jadeite, since it includes agate, soapstone
and marble. In the first chapter the author
role they played in ritual and burial discusses the importance of jade to Chinese
society, its sources and the process of working
it into artefacts.
In the chapter ‘Jade in the Lab’,
Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard were published, so the information available to conservators and scientists from the Harvard
Art Museums scholars and collectors was fragmentary. This Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation
By Jenny F. So. 360 pp. incl. 311 col. + b. & w. ills. explains why some later jades in archaistic style and Technical Studies reveal details that
(Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge MA, and in Winthrop’s collection were believed to be cannot be seen by the naked eye. Scientific
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, archaic at the time they were acquired. They examination helps to understand how these
2019), £45. ISBN 978–0–300–23702–3. are discussed in the last chapter of the book jades were carved, prepared or re-used and
as a brief introduction to the subsequent two how when buried in tombs their surface
by james c.s. lin millennia. Although the Harvard Museums colours changed through contact with other
own later jades, part of the collection of objects. Conservation work can reveal repairs,
Writing a book based on a limited number Chinese ceramics and jades given by Ernest B. which can help to determine the provenance
of objects from a museum collection is like and Helen Pratt Dane in 1942, they have not of the jades.
organising an exhibition: the selection has been included. The book’s chronological account
to tell an interesting story. For this book Inside the book’s front cover, a map of of jade begins with a chapter ‘Meeting
Jenny So has selected 102 ancient jades from China identifies the archaeological sites and Nature’s Challenge’, in which the author
the art collection that the lawyer Grenville known sources of jade referred to in the text discusses the major Neolithic communities
L. Winthrop (1864–1943) bequeathed to the as well giving the country’s modern cities. in northeast China (Hongshan), southeast
Harvard Art Museums. Combining field Since artistic styles and craftsmanship do not China (Liangzhu), the Lower Yellow River
archaeological methods with input from disappear with the end of a dynasty, the author valleys (Longshan), the middle Yellow River
art historians, historians, anthropologists, uses centuries to designate time spans rather (Shijiahe) and the upper Yellow River (Qijia).
epigraphers, mineralogists and conservation than the traditional Chinese dynastic periods. By the end of the third millennium BC these
scientists, she has studied them in depth and The bibliography is divided into Chinese and communities had migrated or dispersed due to
arranged them to form a narrative of Chinese non-Chinese sources and a glossary covers the conflict and economic or climatic conditions,
jade over several thousand years. This is the terminology of Chinese names, archaeological taking with them their prized spiritual
first major study of the jades in the Winthrop sites, books and cities. and worldly artefacts. As a result, local
Collection since the publication in 1975 of The book is divided into eight chapters.
Max Loehr’s catalogue.1 At the end of each, items from the Winthrop 1. Covered container with gilt-bronze mounts.
The book focuses on the early history of Collection related to the chapter’s subject are Western Han period, 200–100 BC. Nephrite
and gilded bronze, 7.7 by 11.2 cm. (Harvard Art
jade because of the nearly seven hundred jades discussed in detail together with comparative Museums, Cambridge MA; photograph Michael
in the collection more than half date from the images of works from other collections or A. Nedzweski and Junius Beebe).
first millennium BC. This is a result both of
Winthrop’s personal taste and the availability
of material from dealers during the time he
was collecting. In the early twentieth century
a number of archaeological finds came to light
during railway and building construction.
Tomb goods were taboo objects for Chinese
collectors, and so they found their way into
western collections. Such excavations marked
a turning point in the collection of jades and
their study, as they stimulated the typological
examination of the objects. As a result,
increasing numbers of books and collections
were published from the 1930s onwards. Among
the most important formed in Europe and
the United States were the Eumorfopoulos,
Sonnenschein and Winthrop collections.2
They included many high-quality jades, dating
mainly from the Neolithic to the Han periods.
However, no systematic research into them
was undertaken and no excavation reports
BOOKS MAR20.indd 258 18/02/2020 14:17

of jades, which were wrongly described as
ornaments or ritual implements. So’s book
draws on the archaeological evidence that has
come to light since the 1980s, which has made
clear that jades from Winthrop’s collection
were primarily excavated from tombs.
Although she has selected only a limited
number of objects, the rich information So
provides from archaeological finds, together
with her discussions of workmanship and
the scientific analysis of jades, will be of great
value to academic researchers and a very
useful guide for those who are new to this
2. Bird with snakes in beak and claws. Late trapezoidal jade spacer plaque with multiple complex subject.
Eastern Zhou period, 500–450 BC. Nephrite, strands of beads. These objects played a
2.6 by 5 by 0.4 cm. (Harvard Art Museums, 1 M. Loehr, ed.: exh. cat. Ancient Chinese Jades from
Cambridge MA; photograph Natalja Kent). prominent role in the life and afterlife of the the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art
nobility from this point onwards. Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge MA (Fogg
Art Museum) 1975.
communities adopted and altered these ritual However, this richness in materials and 2 W. Perceval Yetts: The George Eumorfopoulos
jade objects according to their own needs. colours in personal ornaments did not endure Collection: Catalogue of the Chinese and Korean
Bronzes, Sculpture, Jades, Jewellery and
A discussion of the evidence from the after the Zhou royal family moved the capital Miscellaneous objects, London 1929; and A. Salmony:
excavation of the royal tombs of the Shang eastwards to modern-day Luoyang in 770 BC. Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward and Louis
B. Sonnenschein Collection, Chicago 1952.
dynasty (c.1600–1050 BC) at Anyang in During the sixth century BC a significant
present-day Henan province leads the author change from concave to convex occurred in
to suggest that the forms of early Bronze Age the forms of jade arc-pendants, indicating
jades are derived from Neolithic cultures. Jade a difference in how they were worn. It also Joyas y alhajas del Alto Aragón:
and bronze developed in parallel during the allowed these plaques to take fanciful, free esmaltes y piedras preciosas de ajuares
Bronze Age and both played an important and energetic forms. y tesoros históricos
role in the symbolic, ritual and ornamental This development coincided with the By Carolina Naya Franco. 172 pp. incl. 132 col. ills.
contexts of early Chinese society. Jade was rise of Confucius in the sixth century BC. (Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses, Huesca,
often used to imitate the bronze halberd as a Inspired by the folk poetry known as Shijing 2017), £38. ISBN 978–84–8127–288–8.
symbol of power and in some cases jade (classics of poetry), which often referred to
ge-blades (a dagger-axe, sometimes confusingly jade, Confucius adopted jade as a metaphor by kirstin kennedy
translated as ‘halberd’) were set into turquoise- for the virtues of a gentleman. The link
inlaid bronze hafts. By about 1300 BC a wide between jade and human virtues has been In his Letters Concerning the Spanish Nation
range of jade shapes had appeared, including embedded in Chinese consciousness ever (1763), the Cambridge professor and literary
small amuletic pieces resembling insects, since. Another revolution of jade categories scholar Edward Clarke observed that the
animals, birds and dragons in sculptural and occurred soon after the unification of China canons of Toledo Cathedral ‘do not much
flat form. Old jades were saved and reworked during the second century BC. New categories care to show their library, and less to print
according to the fashion of the day. of jade items such as suits, used to cover the a catalogue [. . .] lest they should disclose
During the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) body of imperial family members, were a how rich they are’. A little over 250 years
jade retained its preeminent role in ritual result of jade’s association with transcendent later, Clarke’s statement no longer holds:
and as personal ornaments for burial (Fig.2). life and immortality. In addition, utensils the canons’ modern successors in Toledo
However, excavation of the Jin noble tombs in made for daily use were produced in jade and other cathedrals are diligent scholars,
Tianma-Qucun and the surrounding region, (cats.41A–B, and 42) as a sign of social status. In who document their collections in print and
which date from the late eleventh century chronological terms the collection concludes online. Although the furnishings and treasures
to the fall of the Zhou capital in 771 BC, has with the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220), when of Spanish churches still remain relatively
demonstrated the use of other colourful soft the use of jade reached its peak. Highlights unknown, they are increasingly the subject of
and hard stones that are not encountered are a unique container in a form otherwise study.1 Jewellery from an ecclesiastical context,
earlier, including red carnelian, blue faience, known only in bronze or lacquer, which is however, tends to be catalogued after it has
black jet and white marble (of which there probably from an imperial Han tomb (Fig.1). made its way into secular collections or when
are no examples in the collection), together In an ‘Epilogue’ So highlights the best post- it forms a historically important group, such
with yellow gold. These were used to create Han jades relating to Buddhist and imperial as the pieces auctioned off by the chapter
the three basic types of personal ornaments: contexts from the Winthrop collection, but of Zaragoza Cathedral in 1870 to subsidise
a long cascading jade multi-arc ornament there are not enough later jades to form an the completion of the basilica, which is the
strung with colourful beads to hang around interesting story. subject of a forthcoming study by Carolina
the neck; a short collar, worn around the Because of a lack of sufficient Naya Franco.2 Exceptionally, Ignacio Miguéliz
neck, strung with jade spacer plaques archaeological evidence, Loehr’s 1975 Valcarlos’s survey of jewellery in Navarre cites
alternating with strings of beads; and an catalogue of the Winthrop Collection gave numerous examples still in ecclesiastical and
unusual configuration consisting of a single little attention to the funerary function monastic treasuries.3
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author confesses, the temptation to range Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the
widely was strong, and her final chapter Dutch Revolt
moves beyond church walls to describe the By Marisa Anne Bass. 312 pp. incl. 192 col. ills.
devotional jewellery worn by the women of (Princeton University Press, Princeton and
Ansó during religious festivals and preserved Oxford, 2019), £50. ISBN 978–0–691–17715–1.
in the town’s museum.
The book’s contribution to jewellery by albert godycki
studies lies in the numerous images of
unfamiliar pieces and in the identification The art of Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1601) is
and dating of the jewellery the author has an invitation to wonder at his virtuosity
seen and sometimes been allowed to handle. in miniature painting and meditate on the
For her arguments, Naya draws on written ingenuity of the natural world. In this book
and visual sources and compares the objects Marisa Anne Bass argues that Hoefnagel’s
to published examples elsewhere. However, detailed studies of flora and fauna carried
as she herself admits, there is much left to poignant insights about humanity. This is not
do. Handling and close examination of the a monograph on Hoefnagel (a task recently
pieces were often hampered by the fact that accomplished by Thea Vignau-Wilberg),1 but
much of this jewellery continues to have a instead a study juxtaposing his art with the
liturgical function or has been stored in a context of religious schism, iconoclasm and
way that severely curtails detailed inspection, war in which it was created.
such as the ex-votos dedicated to the Virgin Born in Antwerp, Hoefnagel came of
from Cillas, Huesca, which are tightly pinned age at a time when the Dutch Revolt against
to a velvet-covered board. Nevertheless, Habsburg Spain was beginning to gain
jewellery historians will be excited and momentum. Initially active as a merchant,
tantalised by some of the pieces she brings ongoing violence forced Hoefnagel, a
to light. The pendant of a chained knight Calvinist, to flee Antwerp in 1576 and
from Jaca Cathedral (Fig.3) is unparalleled commence an itinerant life, seeking refuge in
among surviving sixteenth-century pendants his art, in which he was largely an autodidact.
and sceptical scholars may identify it as a In 1594 he found employment under the
work in the nineteenth-century revivalist relatively tolerant Emperor Rudolf II, with
style. Yet the close helmet and ‘peascod’ whose court Hoefnagel shuttled between
breastplate field armour are consistent with Vienna and Prague. It is Hoefnagel’s Rudolfine
a date of 1550–1600, as argued by Naya. The period, as Bass observes, that today garners
3. Knight pendant (without its filigree chain). tassets, which are enamelled with fruit and most scholarly attention, yet her emphasis
Probably Spanish, 1550–1600 and later? leaves, do not match the breastplate and is largely on his formative earlier years. Bass
Silver, gilded and enamelled, height 6 cm.
(Jaca Cathedral). helmet and are possibly slightly later. There endeavours to elucidate how Hoefnagel’s
are no comparisons for the boot-like leg interest in nature was informed by and
In the book under review, Naya, a armour. On the other hand, the quality and contingent upon his experience of a continent
gemmologist and jewellery historian with construction of the filigree chain in Jaca in political turmoil.
extensive archival experience, provides Cathedral (illustrated on p.80) suggests it is At the core of her analysis lies the
a welcome addition to the scholarly indeed a rare seventeenth-century survival. Four Elements, a group of four albums that
literature on the jewels and jewellery that This study lifts the lid on a treasure chest not Hoefnagel began in the 1570s and expanded
have accumulated over the centuries in only of jewellery, but of future research. It upon throughout his life. In this remarkable
the churches and cathedrals of the Iberian is to be hoped that the priests and canons of and very personal project, the greater part
Peninsula. This is not a study of devotional Spain will continue to unearth their talents of which is in the National Gallery of Art,
practice; instead the focus is on descriptions and allow historians to add scholarly interest Washington, Hoefnagel paired depictions
and dating. Having gained admission to the to their gold. of animals associated in the sixteenth
ecclesiastical treasuries, Naya has examined century with earth, air, water and fire, with
pectoral crosses of prelates and the jewelled 1 See M.A. Castillo Oreja et al., eds: Las catedrales humanist inscriptions, sayings and mottos.
españolas en la Edad Moderna, Madrid 2001; J.A.
offerings of the devout to the statues and Benito: Platería y plateros leoneses de los siglos Divided in two parts, Bass addresses the Four
relics of their patron saints. Many of her XVII y XVIII, León 2006; and L. de Sanjosé i Llongueras: Elements in the second half of the book after
Al servei de l’altar: tresors d’orfebreria de les
descriptions are accompanied by good colour esglésies catalanes, segles ix–xiii, Barcelona 2018. discussing the ways in which Hoefnagel drew
photographs, often taken by herself (although 2 See L. Arbeteta: La joyería española: de Felipe II inspiration from contemporary emblem
a Alfonso XIII en los museos estatales, Madrid 1998;
most lack dimensions). and C. Naya Franco: El Joyero de la Virgen del Pilar: books, topographical illustrations and
Each chapter comprises a survey of the historia de una colección de alhajas europeas y friendship albums in developing his practice.
americanas, Zaragoza (forthcoming).
jewellery in a particular cathedral or church 3 I.M. Valcarlos: Joyería en Navarra, 1550– Bass explains how, for Hoefnagel and his
collection as it survives today, together with 1900, Pamplona 2018, available at: https:// contemporaries, such projects functioned as
www.unav.edu/documents/11139712/12152382/
a brief account of any previous catalogues Joyer%C3%ADa+en+Navarra+1550_1900+para+ sites of asylum and self-preservation in times
or descriptions of these pieces. As the web.pdf, accessed 27th January 2020. of crisis and destruction. For example, the
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emblem-like illustrations from Hoefnagel’s account of the miraculous metamorphoses from the Four Elements are placed at the centre
earliest known album, Patientia (1569; and phoenix-like regeneration that they of the book, which is elegantly laid out and
Bibliothèque Municipale, Rouen), suggest were believed to undertake. Here Hoefnagel wittily ‘infested’ with Hoefnagel’s creatures
a method and mindset of survival, whereas frequently plays with the illusionistic quality on the inside-covers. This is a nuanced study,
the private albums circulated among friends of his paintings, suggesting that entomological hovering between critical biography and
allowed for a freer expression of sentiments specimens have landed on the vellum pages, wider intellectual and artistic history, of an
and political allegiances than would have been only to confuse the viewer with their shadows easily overlooked sixteenth-century master.
possible via more public channels. cast in alternate directions. One page features Bass has eloquently channelled Hoefnagel’s
The Four Elements, Bass proposes, a single swallowtail butterfly which appears message – relevant to our own time – that
encapsulate Hoefnagel’s artistic mission. to have settled within the ovular framing- small things do matter.
Inscriptions throughout the albums, culled line drawn by Hoefnagel (Fig.4), occupying 1 T. Vignau-Wilberg: Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel: Art
from myriad sources including Erasmian the upper half of the oval space and slightly and Science around 1600, Berlin 2017. It was reviewed
by Mark Evans in this Magazine, 161 (2019), p.351.
adages, classical and contemporary poetry off its vertical axis. Bass suggests we might
and the occasional quotation from scripture, read Hoefnagel’s ‘subtle decentering as a
revealed Hoefnagel’s wide-ranging erudition, marker that nature is here privileged over
but more importantly, hinted at corollaries the conventions of art’ (p.231). Lacking in Engineering the Eternal City:
between the ingenuity of the natural world, artificial classifications and not quite in the Infrastructure, Topography, and
the boundless wisdom of divinity and realm of scientific illustration, Hoefnagel’s the Culture of Knowledge in Late
human experience. Visual and behavioural artistic engagement with the animal kingdom Sixteenth-Century Rome
characteristics of birds, gastropods, fish and revealed the fallibility of human attempts to By Pamela O. Long. 368 pp. incl. 73 b. & w. ills.
other creatures became analogies for human control nature and therefore the impossibility (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2018),
life and offered tactics for survival in difficult of ever fully comprehending God’s infinite £34. ISBN 978–0–226–54379–6.
times. For example, the Indian elephant, creativity. Hoefnagel deconstructed an
who waits patiently for some pestering gnats anthropocentric view of the world, yet by joseph connors
to subside, advises perseverance in troubled simultaneously, the skill evident in his
times, whereas an aquatic polyp, changing renderings draws attention to the artifice in In 1957–59 Jean Delumeau published Vie
colour to camouflage itself from its enemies, his construction of illusion. Not only nature, économique et sociale de Rome, a magisterial thèse
calls for protean adaptation in an ever- but art, he seems to repeatedly aver, will last d’état on the economy of late Renaissance
changing world. beyond temporal troubles. Rome in which statistics and charts served as a
Insects constitute the last volume of the Bass brings vast learning, remarkable platform for a wide-ranging overview of social
Four Elements, grouped under Ignis (fire) on facility with classical texts and meticulous life and culture. Pamela Long studies the city
4. Swallotail butterfly, plate VII from
first-hand analysis of the volumes in over the same time period with a different
Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis) from Washington to bear on her interpretation of focus, engineering. But like Delumeau she
the Four Elements, by Joris Hoefnagel. Hoefnagel’s artifice. Although some of the ranges far from her remit, mapping out the
c.1575–80. Watercolour, gouache and gold
on vellum, approx. 14.3 by 18.4 cm. (National comparative illustrations are frustratingly way papal Rome was given an infrastructure of
Gallery of Art, Washington). small, full-scale colour reproductions of pages water, streets and bridges to support its status
as capital of a secular state and simultaneously
fountainhead of the Counter Reformation and
goal of world pilgrimage. The book opens with
an overview of the reigns of four popes from
1557 to 1590: the dynamic Pius IV Medici, the
otherworldly Pius V Ghislieri, the long-lived
Gregory XIII Boncompagni and Sixtus V
Peretti, the ferocious Franciscan inquisitor
who achieved more in five years than all of
the others put together. Aside from this last
reign, however, papal power was not absolute
but had to be negotiated with the communal
government of the Popolo Romano, centred
on the Capitoline Hill, which was expected to
pay for infrastructure. Since the minutes of
the meetings of this body survive, Long can
give us an unusually fine-grained picture of
how decisions were made, both those that led
to success and those that resulted in failure.
For much of the book engineering centres
on water: getting it in, getting it out, taming
and bridging a rage-prone river, cleaning up
after floods and coping with the public health
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problems that ensued. Here Long engages the shocks but the downstream bridge, Ponte great flood of 1598 and has been known ever
creatively with both Katherine Rinne’s work Santa Maria, a Renaissance replacement of since as the Ponte Rotto, the broken bridge.
on the waters of Rome and multiple works by Rome’s oldest bridge, lost two of its five arches A single pathetic arch survives in the middle
the quirky but far-sighted Romanist working in the flood of 1557. Propped up for a generation of the river below the Tiber Island.
from the 1960s to the early 1990s, Cesare by the remedies of Michelangelo and Nanni di Long delights in finding humanists whose
D’Onofrio. The River Tiber is the protean Baccio Bigio, it nevertheless succumbed to the classical erudition led them to remedies for
monster that rises periodically from its 5. Lowering of the Vatican obelisk, by
modern problems. The Latinist Agostino
slumber to unleash devastating floods on the Natale Bonifacio, from Domenico Fontana’s Steuco worked his way through the text of
low-lying Campus Martius. One vital bridge Della trasportatione dell’obelisco Vaticano, Julius Frontinus’s De aquis urbis Romae in an
Rome 1590, pl.18. Engraving, 39.2 by 24.5
built by Sixtus IV in 1484 (at the same time as cm. (Houghton Library, Harvard University, attempt to plot the underground course of
his world-famous chapel) managed to survive Cambridge MA). the Aqua Virgo, tracing it to a source at the
Salone springs at the eighth milestone from
Rome. Steuco proposed a careful restoration
plan to Paul III in 1538 but thirty years had to
pass before it was acted upon. The men who
later tackled the project include the military
engineer Leonardo Bufalini, author of the
great 1551 plan of Rome, and Antonio Trevisi,
the hydrologist who saved the plan from
oblivion but then botched the job of restoring
the aqueduct. When finally finished in 1570
the restored Acqua Vergine supplied water for
several cardinals’ villas and nine fountains.
The deluge that still issues from Nicola Salvi’s
Baroque Trevi Fountain is a reminder of the
magnitude of the achievement.
Although the Campus Martius was
well-watered by 1570, the hills of Rome
remained parched. To restore the ancient
aqueducts that had made these the hills the
prime residential areas of the ancient city
was not easy. The distance from the sources
was great and the drop from start to finish
small, less than nine metres over twenty-two
miles. Gregory XIII set the project in motion
but it was his hated successor, Sixtus V, and
his omnicompetent architect, Domenico
Fontana, who brought the project to
completion at enormous cost. What might
have been the Acqua Gregoriana became the
Acqua Felice. To dramatise this engineering
feat a fountain in the form of a triumphal
arch was erected near the church of S.
Susanna and outfitted with a rich biblical
iconography. In front, a statue of Moses
strikes a rock to bring water to the Israelites
in the desert while distribution tanks in
the rear convey the water to the Quirinal
and, via siphons, to fountains high on the
Capitoline Hill.
In an earlier work, Long called her multi-
tasking protagonists ‘bricologic practitioners’,
key figures in the ‘elision of boundaries
between practice and learning’.1 Printers’ shops
were often the laboratories where mapmakers,
artists and humanists found each other. The
antiquary Bartolomeo Marliani, a ghostly
black-robed recluse, included in his erudite
guidebook of 1544 a fold-out map of ancient
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Rome that influenced Leonardo Bufalini, then Giambologna: Court Sculptor to and Spanish sculpture argued that on the
working on his own monumental map in the Ferdinando I basis of their measurements the bronze could
shop of the same publisher. The French artist By Alexander Rudigier and Blanca Truyols. 376 not have been cast from the marble Venus.4
Etienne Dupérac produced maps of ancient pp. incl. 600 col. ills. (Paul Holberton, London, Subsequently Rudigier claimed the bronze to
and modern Rome and views of the ruins 2019), £50. ISBN 978–1–912168–14–9. be an autonomous work by Giambologna, a
under the guidance of the learned Augustinian slightly remodelled and ‘rethought’ version
monk Onofrio Panvinio and the polymath by dorothea diemer of the marble. According to him, documents
architect Pirro Ligorio. The architect published by Blanca Truyols in her Bulletin
Giovanni Antonio Dosio, draughtsman This lavishly illustrated book is not Monumental article and reprinted here prove
of the ruins, struck up a friendship with a a monograph on the later career of that it was a gift by Duke Ferdinando I
nobleman scholar from San Gimignano, Giambologna, as its title suggests. Instead it de’ Medici to Henri IV of France. It was,
Bernardo Gamucci, to make one of the most concerns a single bronze sculpture, a Bathing therefore, cast by an undocumented and
sympathetic of these bricologic pairs. Dosio’s Venus, and is intended to put an end to a hitherto unknown Meyer in Florence during
discovery in 1562 of the fragments of the controversy about its authorship, character Giambologna’s lifetime. There is a date below
Severan marble plan of Rome, the celebrated and value: is it a work by Giambologna or is the signature (‘anno: 1967+Den: 25+Novembe’)
Forma Urbis, was talked about in the printer’s it a later cast from his marble Venus, now in that seems to read ‘1697’ but which the authors
shops although it would not have a real impact the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles? The argue is in fact ‘1597’, a casting flaw having
on Roman topography until Piranesi. book is described as a ‘revised edition’ since affected the second digit. In the article by
The moving of the Vatican obelisk in its main text is a translation of the authors’ Hinners and the present author, the date
1586 offered Counter-Reformation Rome the contributions to a special issue of the Bulletin is read as 1697 and previously unpublished
opportunity to turn engineering into spectacle Monumental, ‘Jean Boulogne et les jardins documents were cited to demonstrate that
(Fig.5). It was watched by ambassadors d’Henri IV’, with only a slight reworking in 1695 the Swedish Gerhardt Meyer had
from foreign parts and may find an echo in of some of its arguments.1 A foreword has proposed casting statues in bronze for the King,
Shakespeare (Sonnet 123: ‘Thy pyramids built been added, a reply to an article published having learned the technique in Paris. It was
up with newer might/To me are nothing in The Burlington Magazine in 2018 by the stressed that a gift of a Giambologna sculpture
novel’). Fontana called himself an engineer present author and Linda Hinners.2 The to a monarch would not have been permitted
but it might be better to say that he was an book includes two technical reports on the to bear only the signature of a foreign caster.
architect who put on his engineering hat in sculpture, by Christian Goedicke (1996) and Having set out his thesis about a
moving the obelisk. His account is of course Ernst Pernicka (2013). The bronze, which is Florentine origin for the bronze Venus and
biased in his favour but does offer glimpses of partly owned by Alexander Rudigier, one the gifts to Henri IV, Rudigier attempts
the tremendous organisation needed to gather of the authors of this book, was lent to the in three chapters, ‘The Taste of his Time’,
iron, cables and giant beams from all over the exhibition Forged in Fire: Bronze Sculpture in ‘Giambologna’s Style and the End of the
papal state. He knew the propaganda value Florence under the Last Medici at Palazzo Pitti, Renaissance’ and ‘The “Imperfect” in
of the feat, which was celebrated in frescos Florence, in 2019–20, where it was displayed Florentine Sculpture’, to pre-empt possible
in the Vatican Library as well as in his own as an original work by Giambologna.3 criticism of some peculiarities of the figure’s
house, and was given Europe-wide circulation The present reviewer disagrees with this surface. Eschewing bibliographical references,
in images by his genial printmaker, Natale attribution but has tried to approach with an he makes stylistic comparisons with other
Bonifacio from Šibenik in Dalmatia. open mind the new evidence put forward in sculptures in order to explain the ‘imperfect’,
The care taken with the illustrations this book in support of Rudigier’s arguments. or less crisp, modelling of detail in the bronze
is evident in the inclusion of a number of The marble Venus came to light in as a deliberate stylistic choice by Giambologna
evocative drawings by visiting Flemish or Sweden in the 1970s, when it was identified in his later years, and not the outcome of a
Dutch artists. No city in early modern Europe as a sculpture by Giambologna that had been caster’s struggles to reproduce the marble.
was better plotted and all the maps from 1551 looted from Munich by the Swedish king The chapter ‘Erotic Inspiration’ might seem
to 1593 are illustrated at small scale. This is Gustavus Adolphus. Some years later, a bronze unnecessary given the sculpture’s subject,
most useful, as a chapter deals with streets, version surfaced on the French art market. but it is an important element in Rudigier’s
from paving to processions. Even Romanists Compared with the marble version, the argument. In his view, the slumped position of
who know the city can still learn from the woman’s torso and left arm are sunk slightly the woman’s torso and the lowered arm that
industrial-strength notes that trace the downwards and the details of her drapery and conceals her forehead and eyes with a vase (of
bibliographical records back to the oldest hair are sketchier. The bronze is signed on ointment, not water, as is stated here) can be
possible sources. The narrative is swift and its pedestal ‘me fecit · gerhardt · meyer explained as a deliberately sexualised variant
the cast of characters colourful, but it is in the holmiæ’ (the obvious translation of this is of the marble, designed to entice the onlooker
author’s insistence that engineering deserves a ‘Gerhardt Meyer made me in Stockholm’). to step closer to her naked body in order to see
social and humanist history that the book will The Meyers were a dynasty of founders who her face. To the present author, these elements
leave a permanent mark. worked for the Swedish crown from the can be explained more simply as a flaw in
mid-seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth the casting caused by a slight shifting of the
1 P.O. Long: ‘Multi-tasking “pre-professional” architect/
engineers and other bricologic practitioners as key century. A Gerhardt Meyer is documented as moulds when they were assembled. It
figures in the elision of boundaries between practice active in Stockholm between 1695 and 1710. is surely telling that the six lead and plaster
and learning in sixteenth-century Europe: some Roman
examples’, in M. Valleriani, ed.: The Structures of
Given this, it came as a surprise when casts of the marble in Swedish collections
Practical Knowledge, Dordrecht 2017, pp.223–46. in 2002 the catalogue of the Getty’s Italian share this feature.
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Other elements of the sculpture that 1599) refer to sculptures by Giambologna. On nor does it state whether this test was before
seem to tell against the authors’ arguments the other hand, the abstracts omit the fact or after the bronze underwent X-radiography.
are dismissed. Acknowledging that the copper that the letter of 3rd July 1599 thanking the This is important because irradiation tends
used to make the bronze originated in Sweden, Grand Duchess for the ‘statuette’ was written to artificially increase the apparent TL age. It
they claim that it was imported into Florence. not by the King but by his secretary of state, would be possible to determine if an accidental
For them, ‘Holmiae’ means not ‘in Stockholm’ Nicolas de Neufville, Seigneur de Villeroi, who irradiation had occurred by studying the TL-
but ‘from Stockholm’, despite the fact that at in February had asked her for ‘statuette galanti curves, but they have not been included in the
least sixty-seven known casts by the Meyer per fontane’ (‘gallant statuettes for fountains’). published report.7 No explanation is given of
foundry in Stockholm are signed ‘Holmiae’. It is true that he, when thanking her for his why the technical analysis of the bronze by the
They argue that the ornament on the pedestal ‘statuette’, stated that he wanted a Triton like Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, cited on p.10 (note
was designed by Giambologna, although it has the King’s, but there is no evidence that the 2), has not been published.
no parallel in his work and is comparable to other statuettes were by Giambologna. A letter In short, the book offers no substantial
late seventeenth-century French ornament.5 referring to Villeroi and another courtier, new evidence in support of Rudigier’s
They also have no doubt that there was a Girolamo Gondi, as possible recipients of arguments. The discussion now needs to be
Gerhardt Meyer working in Florence in statues from the Medici is ignored.6 taken up by independent experts, who may well
Giambologna’s lifetime, although his name In the end, the argument that two have more to offer than this sumptuous book.
appears nowhere in the dense archival additional statues by Giambologna were 1 B. Truyols: ‘Les présents de Ferdinand Ier de Médicis
documentation of the court workshops. sent to Henri IV in 1599 is based on the à Henri IV pour ses jardins de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Documents inédits sur Tommaso Francini et Jean
The cornerstone of the book’s narrative interpretation of a single letter. On 27th Boulogne’, pp.251–86; A. Rudigier: ‘Les bronzes envoyés
is formed of ninety-four extracts from letters February 1600 a Grand Ducal secretary in Paris de Florence à Saint-Germain-en-Laye, la Vénus de 1597
et les dernières œuvres de Jean Boulogne’, pp.287–356;
between Paris and Florence (and cities en reported to Florence that the King’s Florentine and idem: ‘Le non finito dans la sculpture Florentine et
route) in the Medici archives, which are fontaniere had told him about two statues by la notion de disegno’, pp.357–68, in Bulletin Monumental
174 (2016).
put forward as proof that the bronze was Giambologna that had arrived in Arles six 2 D. Diemer and L. Hinners: ‘“Gerhardt Meyer made
sent to Henri IV in 1599. Two shipments of months earlier. He didn’t know whether they me in Stockholm”: a bronze “Bathing Woman” after
Giambologna’, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 160 (2018),
bronzes by Giambologna have been known were for the King, and thought it strange pp.545–53.
about for a long time, a Mercury and a Triton, that they had not yet been received in Paris. 3 The exhibition was reviewed by Charles Avery in this
Magazine, 161 (2019), pp.1044–47. For the controversy
which arrived in the autumn of 1598, and a Rudigier maintains that the fontaniere could prompted by the inclusion of the Bathing Venus, see G.
Bacchus and a Venus, documented in Florence not be referring to the second shipment of Bowley: ‘Is it a ‘5’ or a ‘6’? The answer could make an art
fortune’, The New York Times (26th November 2019).
in July 1599. Cast by Domenico Portigiani, works by Giambologna, the Bacchus and Venus 4 Entry by P. Fogelman in idem, P. Fusco and M.
they were intended for the King’s garden at cast by Portigiani in July 1599, since there was Cambareri: Italian and Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue
of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection, Los Angeles
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and it is a pleasure to insufficient time for them to have arrived in 2002, pp.84–96 and 353–54, no.12, figs.1–5.
follow through these letters the difficulties of Arles by September (six months earlier). The 5 See, for example, A.-C. d’Aviler: Cours d’Architecture,
Paris 1691, I, p.vii, pl.b, ‘Treffles quarrez’.
transporting plants and fountain equipment idea of a ‘third shipment’ to the king hangs 6 State Archives, Florence, MdP 4615, fol. 204; the
up the frozen Rhone, past unwilling custom entirely on this thin thread. In short, there letter is cited on p.361, note 39.
7 These observations were kindly sent to me by
officers or courtiers in Paris trying to divert seems to be no evidence at all for a third Klaus Yvon, Emeritus Professor of Crystallography
some of the goods to themselves. The political shipment of works by Giambologna. at the University of Geneva, who has independently
analysed the book’s technical report.
background to these gifts was Ferdinando’s For the crucial question of whether or
desire to marry his daughter Maria to a king not the bronze was cast from the marble,
and Henri’s debts to the Medici, which made the author continues to rely on the Getty
him eager for her dowry. catalogue, where an exaggerated shrinkage Francesco Solimena (1657–1747) e le
Rudigier proposes that there was a of ten percent was assumed to be normal for Arti a Napoli
third shipment of two further statues by bronze copies. To know the exact comparative Edited by Nicola Spinosa. 1100 pp. incl. 400 col.
Giambologna between the dates of the known measurements would be helpful. A decision + 600 b. & w. ills. (Ugo Bozzi, Rome, 2018), £365.
gifts, because some of the letters from 1599 about how the date should be read would be ISBN 978–88–7003–060–0.
and 1600 published here mention a shipment assisted by publishing comparable examples of
of ‘statue’ or ‘statuette’ (‘statues’ or ‘statuettes’) the digit ‘5’ in Meyer signatures. Rudigier also by stéphane loire
among other garden furnishings. No name relies greatly on thermoluminescence (TL)
was given for their caster (or casters), allowing tests that produced a firing date of 1560–1604. In his lifetime Francesco Solimena was
them to be claimed for Meyer. However, For him, such scientific data wholly outweighs recognised as one of the greatest Neapolitan
none names Giambologna, or any other the art-historical evidence that conflicts with painters. After the death of Carlo Maratti in
sculptor. Instead they simply refer to ‘casse it; another point of view would be that such 1713, no other artist in Italy had a reputation
di statue’ or ‘aranci e altri fiori e tre casse di pietre evidence calls the data into doubt. It may be comparable to his. Mastering most pictorial
per fontane’ (‘boxes with statues’; ‘oranges observed, for example, that the technical report genres, including religion, history, mythology,
and other flowers and three boxes of stones does not explain why an error as small as plus allegory, portrait and still life, he was as
for fountains’). This makes it puzzling that or minus 5% has been attributed to the TL age proficient in easel painting as in large-scale wall
in their abstracts of these letters published obtained, when such errors typically amount painting. Without ever leaving Naples, with
in a ‘Chronology based on the Archival to plus or minus 20%. The report also does not the sole exception of a stay in Rome around
Documents’, the authors imply that two of specify the location from which the sample 1700–02, he achieved international success: in
these letters (dated 17th April and 5th June for the second TL measurement was taken, 1690 he painted an allegory for Louis XIV and
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Books
after that received numerous commissions of Cortona’s works in Naples, as was previously and he began to emphasise perspective and
from the courts of Austria, Spain and Savoy thought. Another argument in favour of an the monumentality of his figures seen in
as well as from Genoa and Venice. early trip to Rome is Solimena’s precocious profile. This ‘purist’ tendency was probably
For half a century knowledge of familiarity with the prototypes of Roman linked to his relationship with the Academy
Solimena’s work was based on a monograph mural painting, which he adopted while at the of Arcadia. Monopolising the most important
by Ferdinando Bologna (1925–2019) published same time renewing the earlier Neapolitan commissions from this time onwards, he
in 1958, which included over two hundred tradition of the coffered ceiling. In the sacristy painted such widely praised works as the
illustrations. Foundational for the study of S. Paolo Maggiore (1690), the principal Expulsion of Heliodorus from the temple (1725) in
of Neapolitan painting of the eighteenth work of his early maturity, Solimena achieves the Gesù Nuovo, Naples, while also receiving
century, the book may have in part hampered a remarkable unity in the vast compositions commissions from the greatest sovereigns, in
further research on the artist since the with numerous figures and strong light effects particular Philip V and Charles III of Spain and
author announced several times that a (Fig.6). The influence of Giordano is evident Emperor Charles VI of Austria. Nonetheless,
revised edition was imminent. But there in the use of brilliant colours but the work also in the early 1740s he returned unexpectedly
were other obstacles: the main source for reveals a tendency to monumentality that is to a sombre manner with strong contrasts of
Solimena is his biography by Bernardo De typical of Solimena. light inspired by Preti, which distances him
Dominici (1742–45), whose reliability has When Giordano left Naples to work as a from the elegant Rocaille style that his pupil
often been questioned. In fact, this text, court painter in Spain (1692–1702), Solimena Francesco de Mura increasingly imposed on
written by one of Solimena’s close friends, turned even more towards Preti and his multi- the Neapolitan school.
was almost certainly approved by the author figured scenes inspired by Paolo Veronese.
6. The fall of Simon Magus, by Francesco
and the recent edition of De Dominici’s While in Rome, however, Solimena must Solimena. 1690. Fresco. (Basilica di San Paolo
Lives of Neapolitan Artists demonstrates that have encountered the classicism of Maratti, Maggiore, Naples).
it offers a coherent outline of the artist’s
career.1 Another impediment to research on
Solimena is the fact that some of his paintings
remaining in Naples may be difficult to
access. It is revealing that the dimensions of
the largest paintings are often unknown and
none is given for seventy paintings in the
catalogue under review.2 It is therefore mainly
Neapolitan scholars who work on the artist,
and as a result there are few comprehensive
publications on his œuvre. However, what
makes the writing of a catalogue of Solimena’s
works most problematic are the difficulties
in dating the works. There are surprising
stylistic differences between paintings that are
close in date. In fact, the artist never ceased
to return to Luca Giordano (1634–1705) and
Mattia Preti (1613–99), experimenting with
the colour of the former or the expressive
neo-caravaggism of the latter. In addition,
Solimena sometimes retouched copies of his
paintings made by his pupils.
The first volume of this work contains a
catalogue of Solimena’s paintings compiled
by Nicola Spinosa. By and large adopting the
interpretation of Solimena’s work by Bologna,
Spinosa proposes a more precise assessment.
Born in Serino in the province of Avellino,
seventy kilometres from Naples, Solimena
was trained by his father, a local painter and
pupil of Francesco Guarino (1611–54). In 1674
Solimena moved to Naples. Together with
the influence of Giovanni Lanfranco, his first
paintings reveal an interest in the Baroque
language of the Roman artist Pietro da Cortona
(1597–1669). Spinosa argues with reason that
this interest must have developed during a stay
in Rome and not just through the knowledge
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Books
Although Spinosa asserts that his catalogue no.136 Assumption and coronation of the Virgin Raffinesse im Akkord: Meissener
makes no claims to completeness, he presents (Annunziata, Marcianise). The dimensions Porzellanmalerei und ihre
a thorough account of Solimena’s paintings: are 500 by 250 cm. Grafischen Vorlagen
there are 308 entries but he records around no.145a–h Stories of David and Salomon. Despite By Claudia Bodinek, with contributions by
450 paintings, including the diverse copies and Bernardo De Dominici’s assertion that, Peter Braun, Tobias Pfeifer-Helke und
derivations that are considered autograph. out of respect for Giordano, Solimena had Claudia Schnitzer. 2 vols, 768 pp. incl. 1,394 col.
Among those that are lost, one could mention refused to complete paintings on these + 34 b. & w. ills. (Michel Imhof Verlag, Munich,
an Ecstasy of St William of Montevergine, recorded subjects left unfinished by Giordano after 2018), £135. ISBN 978–3–7319–0472–4.
in an engraving by Giuseppe Magliar. The his death and had painted new versions,
collector Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774) these canvases should be attributed to by aileen dawson
requested the print from Giovanni Bottari Giordano and not to Solimena.
on the 2nd February 1765.3 Depicting the no.146 St Clement the pope with saints and angels This detailed study of the use of engravings as
founder of the monastery of Montevergine (Sarzana Cathedral). The dimensions are well as a small number of etchings and drawings
in the Avellino district, it must reproduce a 312 by 190 cm. at Meissen from the 1740s to the so-called
canvas that pre-dates 1765 and might have been no.193 Assumption of the Virgin (Capua Cathedral). Marcolini period, when the manufactory was
painted in the years 1720–30. The dimensions are 450 by 250 cm. directed by Count Camillo Marcolini (active
The second volume was written by no.197 Expulsion of Heliodorus from the temple 1780–1814), is among the most significant
six other specialists and contains chapters (Gesù Nuovo, Naples). The composition publications on Meissen porcelain. The first
on Solimena’s graphic work and a catalogue recalls some of the religious paintings volume incorporates five essays written by four
by Cristiana Romalli of 121 drawings. Other by Jean Jouvenet (1644–1717), such as the scholars and the second comprises the catalogue,
chapters discuss the artist’s architectural Supper in the house of Simon and Christ driving with over five hundred examples of porcelain,
projects as well as his work in sculpture, the merchants from the temple (both 1706; which are illustrated in colour alongside the
book illustrations and decorative arts Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon). The first graphic sources used for the painted scenes.
and his relationship with contemporary versions of these paintings were engraved Together with Rainer Rückert’s
Neapolitan musicians. Richly illustrated, by Gaspard Duchange in 1705 and Solimena monumental Biographische Daten der Meissener
the book offers a welcome reconsideration might have known these prints. Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts (1990), a
of Solimena’s work and, more generally, of no.210 Bathsheba at her bath (Palazzo Reale, unique record of the complex administrative
artistic creation in Naples in the first half Aranjuez). The copy in the Musée du structure and day-to-day functioning of the
of the eighteenth century. Louvre, Paris (R.F.1963–108), on loan to factory, this book reveals how its aesthetic
the Musée de la Faïence et des Beaux-arts developed in tandem with changes in taste
no.40.1 Virgin and Child (Musée d’Art et de Nevers, which is here connected to during the eighteenth century. Valuable
d’Histoire, Melun). A similar composition this painting should, in fact, be related details of the acquisition of the graphic sources
was engraved by Joseph Wagner (1706–80). to Solimena’s Return of David (Palazzo together with records of the disposal of material
no.46a Glorification of Francis of Sales, Francis of Reale, Madrid). that was no longer needed, given in the first
Assisi and Anthony of Padua (S. Nicola alla no.219 St Gaetan Thiene (S. Gaetano Thiene, volume, pinpoint the moment when tastes were
Carità, Naples). The dimensions are 500 Vicenza). Contrary to what is suggested changing. The manufactory’s location in the
by 250 cm. here, the saint depicted is not Philip German Democratic Republic long held back
no.46b Virgin and Child with Sts Peter and Paul Neri. The painting was finished by 1725, study of its operation in the eighteenth century.
(S. Nicola alla Carità, Naples). The before the completion of the church of S. Only selected scholars were allowed access to the
dimensions are 400 by 254 cm. Gaetano in 1730; see the entry by G. Delfini copious documentation of what has been a state
no.85 St George and the dragon (Naples Filippi in F. Rigon, ed.: exh. cat. I Tiepolo e concern from its very foundation by the Elector
Cathedral). The dimensions are 175 il Settecento vicentino, Vicenza (Montecchio of Saxony, Augustus the Strong (1670–1733),
by 105 cm. Maggiore and Bassano del Grappa) 1990, in the first decade of the eighteenth century.
no.110 Virgin and Child with Sts Augustin and pp.79–80, no.2.4. A painting showing the However, the reorganisation of the factory’s
Monica and Our Lady of Mount Carmel with same saint in front of a view of Naples, archive and the granting of free access, described
Sts Albert and Mary Magdalene (S. Maria where St Gaetan Thiene died in 1547, was in Peter Braun’s essay, has resulted in great
Egiziaca a Forcella). Each of the two engraved by Andrea Magliar. progress in Meissen studies in recent years.
paintings measures 350 by 250 cm. no.279 Portrait of Count Aloys Thomas Raimund Past contributions to the history of the use
no.121 Our Lady of Graces with the souls in purgatory von Harrach (private collection). Another of graphic sources for porcelain painting at the
(Annunziata, Barra). The dimensions are portrait of the Count by Solimena was Meissen manufactory remain invaluable and
335 by 191 cm. engraved by Jeremias Jakob Sedelmayer have been largely incorporated, as evidenced by
no.133 Solimena’s work for the abbey of (1704–61). the extensive bibliography in the first volume.1
Montecassino. New documents on Much of the information in this compendium
1 B. De Dominici: Vite de’ pittori, scultori ed architetti
these lost decorative schemes have been napoletani, Naples 1742–45, ed. F. Sricchia Santoro and derives from articles by such scholars as T.H.
published by F. Lofano: ‘La decorazione A. Zezza, Naples 2008, III. Clarke (not Timothy Clarke as he appears in the
2 Some of the dimensions can be found at BeWeB -
barocca dell’abbazia di Montecassino. Beni Ecclesiastici in web, available at https://beweb.chiesa- bibliography; known as ‘Tim’, his first name was
Novità e riflessioni’, Mitteilungen des cattolica.it/benistorici/, accessed 29th January 2020. Theodore, which he never used). The chief early
3 G. Bottari et S. Ticozzi: Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura,
Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 60 scultura ed architettura scritta da’ più celebri person-
writer on sources for decoration on German
(2018), pp.323–36. naggi dei secoli XV, XVI e XVII, 5, Milan 1822, p.417. porcelain was Siegfried Ducret, whose article
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Books
7. ‘Philis lors qu’a nos yeux le lapin tu

caresse.’, by Marie-Jeanne Renard Dubos
after Madeleine Françoise Basseporte.
c.1700. Engraving and etching, 20.9 by
15.2 cm. (Meissen Archive). Snuffbox,
Meissen. c.1740. Gold and porcelain, diameter
7.6 cm. (Private collection).
under the aegis of Augustus the Strong, it

became the first museum print cabinet in the
German-speaking lands and was organised
along thematic lines by Johann Heinrich von
Heucher (1677–1747), who was succeeded by
Carl Heinrich von Heineken (active 1746–63)
and the better-known Count Marcolini. From
1738 Johann Joachim Kändler used prints
after Watteau from the Recueil Julienne issued
in 1735, and in subsequent years hundreds of
such prints were acquired, many from dealers
in Paris. Before the Second World War there
were 780 prints after Watteau in Dresden, just
short of the total of 795 recorded in Edmond
de Goncourt’s catalogue. The numerous
illustrations of pieces painted with Watteau
on the source of floral decoration on Meissen of engravings of landscapes by Jan van de Velde subjects in the second volume of the book
appeared in 1951. His masterful book of 1973 (1593–1641) are recorded, two of animals in indicate just how popular these were in the
on the graphic models for eighteenth-century engravings by Virgil Solis (1514–62) and but one German-speaking lands. In her essay on the
porcelain painting is in a sense a forerunner of of the work of Madeleine Françoise Basseporte Dresdner Kupferstich-Kabinett as supplier
the present comprehensive volume on Meissen. (1701–80; Fig.7), a charming half-length portrait of models to the school of drawing and
The volumes under review continue of a young woman with a rabbit, which was manufactory in Meissen, Claudia Schnitzer
the work of earlier authors in revealing the used as a model for a painting on the inner demonstrates the role of the Dresden print
enormous variety of sources and subjects cover of a gold box. However, engravings cabinet in supporting the artistic endeavour
calculated to appeal to the manufactory’s by several artists were used on a number of of the porcelain factory. This essay includes
sophisticated clientele, embracing many services. For instance, a service decorated in transcriptions of a number of valuable journal
aspects of contemporary life from domestic green and ornamented with lavish gilding entries by Christian Friedrich Wenzel in
scenes to battles, Classical scenes and portraits bearing the arms of Spain and Saxony, dating 1764, when the loan of prints to the porcelain
by way of flowers, animals and birds. The work from 1745–47, had a coherent decorative factory first began. Claudia Bodinek traces
of over eighty artists from several countries, programme closely based on engravings by decade by decade how painted decoration
including the Low Countries, Switzerland, Nicolas IV de Larmessin, François Joullain, based on engravings developed at Meissen
France, Italy and Austria, and dating from Nicholas-Henri Tardieu and others after during the eighteenth century. Her discussion
the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). From 1775–90, of the working method of Johann Gregorius
was used as sources for decoration. These a period which has received relatively little Höroldt leaves little doubt that the drawings
ranged from gallant scenes – principally attention from scholars of Meissen porcelain, of Chinese-style subjects in the so-called
after Antoine Watteau – to battle-scenes engravings by Johann Gottlieb and Georg Schulz Codex only record changes made by
after Johann Moritz Rugendas, but also Siegmund Facius, William Wynne Ryland, Höroldt to the sources used, such as accounts
included animals, reptiles, birds, landscapes J.B. Lucien, Gabriel Skorodomoff, Francesco of travels in the East, and are not in themselves
and flowers. The important work of Johann Bartolozzi and Jean Marie Delattre of Classical the actual sources. Each of the five essays is
Wilhelm Weinmann, Phytanthoza Iconographica, subjects by the Swiss artist Angelika Kauffman tellingly illustrated and supported by extensive
published in Regensburg in 1737 and engraved (1741–1807) were popular on lavishly gilded
by Bartholomew Seuter, Johann Elias Ridinger teawares, thirteen of which are illustrated.
and Johann Jakob Haid, provided sources for Although principally aimed at porcelain
even more pieces than those painted with lovers, this book contains much of interest ORDER A BOOK
To order a book reviewed in The
Watteau scenes. Services including the one to those who study the print trade and print Burlington Magazine, please visit
made for Count Götzendorf-Grabowski, as collecting. Two authors concentrate on this www.burlington.org.uk, where a link
well as the so-called ‘Brühl’sche Allerlei’ service aspect of cultural history. In his essay on the will take you to John Sandoe Books.
for Count Heinrich von Brühl and a service history of the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden By ordering your book through our
website, John Sandoe Books will
for Clemens-August of Bavaria, all dating from in the eighteenth century and the beginning of generously donate a percentage
1742, are meticulously painted with botanically the use of Watteau as a model, Tobias Pfeifer- of the sale back to the Magazine,
accurate flowers, fruit and vegetables after Helke traces the origin of the Dresden print supporting our mission to publish
new research on art and its history.
prints by Weinmann carefully arranged on a cabinet as far back as 1560, when it formed
white ground. Only four instances of the use part of the princely Kunstkabinett. In 1720,
BOOKS MAR20.indd 267 18/02/2020 16:05

Books
footnotes. This is an invaluable compendium of formation in Russia became more focused. enabled patriotic commentators to attach the
engraved sources in use at the leading porcelain Napoleon’s doomed invasion of Moscow in 1812 new interest in the expressive potential of art to
factory in the German-speaking world. led to disenchantment with all things French Russian sources, challenging the view that the
(excluding revolutionary ideas, for some) and emergence of Modernism in Russia was entirely
1 Engraved sources for porcelain decoration have
been the subject of considerable research since the galvanised the burgeoning interest in what it due to the influence of the Impressionists
interwar period. See, for example, C. Cook: The Life meant to be Russian. The invasion gave rise to and Post-Impressionists (who were indeed
and Work of Robert Hancock, London 1948; idem:
Supplement to the Life and Work of Robert Hancock, the first great monument in a Russo-Byzantine richly represented in Russian collections).
London 1958; and G. and S. Guy-Jones: Bow Porcelain, style, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour Interestingly, it also transpires that after the
On-glaze Prints and their Sources, London 2013.
in Moscow, begun in 1839 to commemorate Revolution, even Vrubel (1856–1910) – a painter
Russian losses to Napoleon. But the dream of both visionary scenes and of ‘bourgeois’
of a reconstituted Byzantium remained alive. portraits – was manipulated by the Bolsheviks
The Icon and the Square: Indeed, it was exacerbated by wars between into being understood as an anticipation of
Russian Modernism and the Russo- imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire Soviet Constructivism and Productivism, firmly
Byzantine Revival in the 1850s and 1870s, which led to Russian rooting those developments in Russian soil.
By Maria Taroutina. 288 pp. incl. 51 col. + 65 reclamation of Byzantine territory in the Taroutina’s distinction between Byzantine
b. & w. ills. (Pennsylvania State University Balkans. At the start of the century, young and early Russian sources is nuanced. She
Press, University Park PA, 2018), £79.95. Russian artists were still travelling to Venice explains how, although the Kiev mosaics
ISBN 978–0–271–08104–5. and Ravenna in search of the roots of their art. directly reflect the influence of Byzantium on
It was only towards the end of the nineteenth Orthodox Russia, the medium had not been
by andrew spira century, Taroutina suggests, that the gaze of continued in Russia until it was revived on
scholars shifted towards Russia itself and the account of its ‘byzantinism’ in the nineteenth
Maria Taroutina’s book adds valuable detail art of Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod and Pskov. century, and it therefore conveyed associations
to the established understanding that, While scholars projected their image with Byzantium more than with ancient
despite their wholehearted commitment to of Byzantium outwards, into geographical Russia. Significantly, Kandinsky expressed an
modernity, Russian avant-garde artists were space and historical time, they also independent interest in Byzantine, as distinct
openly indebted to the past. This was not concretised it in the here and now by from Russian, art. Taroutina observes that
the symbolic pasts that had been cultivated assembling collections of Byzantine and he read Nikodim Kondakov’s doctoral thesis
by their predecessors – Classical Antiquity, early Russian artefacts in museums that History of Byzantine Art and Iconography Traced
ancient Egypt – but their own. This shift local people could visit. Especially from the in the Miniatures of Greek Manuscripts, published
involved the discovery (or creation) of 1880s collections were formed, not only in in 1876, citing it in his On the Spiritual in Art
national identity, and a return beyond Russian St Petersburg (the Hermitage and Russian (1911) and even copied one of the miniatures
sources to the origins of the country’s spiritual Museum) and Moscow (the Rumyantsev reproduced in it. Kandinsky was attracted to
identity in Byzantium, from which Russia Museum, the Historical Museum and the all sacred art and his interest in Byzantium
adopted Orthodox Christianity. Tretyakov Gallery, which later absorbed (which he read about in French) did not
Taroutina’s study opens with a chapter much of the Rumyantsev Museum), but also necessarily have a ‘national’ implication,
on the rehabilitation of Byzantium in the in due course in Vladimir, Vologda, Kiev even in its broadest sense.
eyes of Russians, following a century of and elsewhere. Temporary exhibitions were Wooden icons, on the other hand, did.
pro-westernisation instigated in the late also an important medium of exchange. One Although icons were painted throughout the
seventeenth century by Peter the Great. One of the strengths of The Icon and the Square is Byzantine world and Byzantine panel paintings
of the reasons the subject is interesting is that the detailed accounts that Taroutina gives were collected for Russian museums, icons were
it clearly exposes the mechanisms of influence. of these enterprises. Indeed, although they typically perceived as distinctively Russian.
First of all, the concept of Byzantium had to are to some extent presented as background Unlike the Byzantine world, which abounded
be distilled from the physical fact that the information to later chapters dedicated to the in more precious materials, in Russia wood was
Byzantine Empire had become the Ottoman ways in which the sacred art of Byzantium the only material that was readily available.
Empire and that Hagia Sophia, the greatest catalysed the art of Mikhail Vrubel, Wassily As Taroutina points out, both Tatlin and
church of Byzantium, had become a mosque. Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin and Kazimir Malevich appropriated aspects of icons that
In the 1780s Catherine the Great had planned Malevich, they are arguably the book’s most had deep national resonances – their physically
to recreate the Byzantine Empire with its original contribution. constructed nature on the one hand, which
capital in Constantinople (she named one of Having said that, the chapters dedicated (unlike Vrubel) influenced Constructivism,
her grandsons ‘Constantine’, in anticipation to these artists capture the essence of their and their traditional placement in the corners
of his future role there). She had even hoped responses to the Byzantine tradition, linking of Russian homes on the other, a tradition
to have a replica of Hagia Sophia built outside their artistic developments closely to the associated with Byzantium only in legend. As
St Petersburg, although her plan came to availability of these new sources. Taroutina such, these artists reflect a kind of response that
nothing; the substitute church, designed by explains in detail how Vrubel’s patchy, painterly differentiates them both from Vrubel, who was
the Scotsman Charles Cameron, is neo- style was precipitated by a commission he arguably as interested in Byzantine as in Russian
Palladian, reflecting the architect’s relative received in 1884 to complete a damaged cycle art, and Kandinsky, whose interest in Byzantine
lack of interest in the nationalistic potential of Byzantine mosaics in St Sophia Cathedral, art developed while he was living in Germany in
of style. At the beginning of the nineteenth Kiev, with painted simulations. This stylistic 1896–1914 and which was cosmopolitan. Taken
century, the impulse towards identity relationship was later celebrated in Russia as it together, the artists Taroutina has chosen to
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Books
focus on reflect the variety of purposes to cruised and various artists created, the piers the groups of gay men who used it for sex.
which the legacy of Byzantium could be put in have become synonymous with the queer, the As Weinberg writes, ‘it could be argued that
pre-revolutionary Russia. clandestine and the ephemeral – aspects all too Matta-Clark’s seizure and “renovation” of
Given that religion was to all intents and easily fetishised or flattened by the orthodoxies city-owned property was far more criminal
purposes banned in the Soviet Union, there of criticism. From the vantage point of the than the trespassing or lewd conduct’ of these
is some logic in concluding a book on the hyper-gentrified era of Grindr and online gay men (p.3).
influence of religious art at the Revolution. dating, the piers seem particularly available to Matta-Clark was one among a number
But, as a feature of the legacy of icon painting nostalgic rewriting. Indeed nostalgia, as the late of ‘ostensibly “straight” artists’ who had
in Russia, this cut-off point is too absolute. scholar Svetlana Boym wrote, ‘is not always an antagonistic relation to the ‘piers in the
Ironically, aspects of the icon painting tradition about the past’; it is considering ‘the future’ that Greenwich Village area that were most
continued to pervade the atheistic culture of ‘makes us take responsibility for our nostalgic frequented by gay men’. Many avoided them,
Communism. This is another story, and it has tales’.1 What does it mean to take responsibility ‘consciously or unconsciously’ (p.29) aware of
been widely addressed by scholars; but what for nostalgia? And how might this sense of loss this gay sexual subculture, and chose to create
perhaps has not received due attention – and be made instructive? their projects in piers further downtown. Vito
it is a shame that it does not appear here – is Jonathan Weinberg’s book is animated Acconci, on the other hand, whose Untitled,
the impact that the Russo-Byzantine tradition by such questions. The author candidly project for Pier 17 (1971) involved him waiting on
had on more mainstream artists in the 1920s frames his history with the admission that the outskirts of the eponymous pier in order
and 1930s. Now that the anniversary of the he, as an occasional participant in the life to disclose personal secrets to strangers, forged
Revolution is behind us, there is a case for of the waterfront, may be prone to a certain ahead with his work but compared himself
addressing the continuities that marked this nostalgia. Admirably, then, his book offers to a ‘nice straight guy [who] goes to prison’
tumultuous time and are reflected in art that is a markedly ambivalent picture of the piers. (p.48). The simultaneous fascination with, and
only now beginning to surface. In an epilogue He turns a critical eye, for instance, upon the disavowal of, the gay world of the piers on the
Taroutina references the Pussy Riot debacle of unquestioned radicalism of the interventions part of these artists makes for uncomfortable
2012 and various other post-Soviet exercises in that artists performed in the quasi-public reading, but that is not to say that this sexual
‘iconicity’, but iconophile artists from the circle space of the piers. Gordon Matta-Clark’s subculture was in itself a totally enlightened
of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin in the 1920s, such as Day’s end (1975) is perhaps the best-known of one. Although it held the potential to be, and
Leonid Chupyatov (1890–1941) and Evgenia the numerous site-specific works that were for some was, a democratising Whitmanesque
Evenbach (1889–1981), are overlooked. staged or constructed in the spaces of the paradise of anonymous sex that looked
The book is a pleasure to read. Well piers. Matta-Clark cut holes of various sizes beyond the hierarchies of desirability found
written and richly illustrated, it gives a into the walls of Pier 52 to create a spectacle in the gay ‘scene’, those same hierarchies were
comprehensive sense of the way in which the of changing light, altering the conditions of nonetheless reproduced along the Hudson.
Byzantine ground of Russian national identity the space itself. Yet during the making of what And the piers, even beyond the erotic frisson
was laid throughout the nineteenth century, he termed anarchitecture – defined as the of a certain sketchiness, were genuinely
without which some of the most influential meeting of anarchy and architecture – Matta-
8. Sunbathing on the edge, Pier 52 (Matta-
manifestations of world modernism could Clark made the markedly less radical gesture Clark’s Day’s End), by Shelley Seccombe.
never have flowered the way they did. of locking up the building in order to keep out c.1977. Photograph. (Courtesy the artist).
Pier Groups: Art and Sex Along the

New York Waterfront
By Jonathan Weinberg. 232 pp. incl. 34 col.
+ 66 b. & w. ills. (Penn State University Press,
University Park PA, 2019), £31.50.
ISBN 978–0–271–08217–2.
by jack parlett
In a recent talk at New York University, the

queer theorist Jack Halberstam observed that
queer ‘utopias’ are not always optimistic or
forward-looking. In turning to the past, we
observe the utopian promises of other worlds
that never came to be. New York’s abandoned
Hudson River piers, which were a locus of rich
artistic and erotic activity in the 1970s and
1980s, are for Halberstam and many others
a consummate example of such lost queer
horizons. As dilapidated spaces where gay men
BOOKS MAR20.indd 269 18/02/2020 16:07

Books
dangerous places; especially enlightening

in this regard is Weinberg’s section on the
journalist Arthur Bell, who publicly advocated
against the piers in the 1970s after a number of
gay man were robbed, beaten or killed there.
Weinberg’s focus upon the piers in all
their overlapping contradictions, as spaces
at once perilous, liberating, protective and
dehumanising, is suggested by his title. The
book’s central conceit is that the ‘visual
and aesthetic productions on and about
the piers overlapped and coincided without
their makers necessarily being aware of one
another’ (p.85). Weinberg identifies a range
of such unwitting ‘peers’ as Matta-Clark
and David Wojnarowicz; the book’s most
compelling sections focus on lesser-known
photographers such as Shelley Seccombe
(Fig.8) and Alvin Baltrop, who was recently
the subject of a superb retrospective at the including humour, have been understudied. 9. Film still from La Défense, The Venturing
Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York.2 Pier One aim of the book (and the 2016 conference Gaze, directed by Paulien Oltheten, 2017–18.
Groups combines art history with close visual in Brussels, it is based) is to help fill this gap by
analysis and personal reflection in a manner focusing on the relationship between humour Ruchel-Stockmans’s essay ‘Falling as art:
aspiring to the montage of Walter Benjamin’s and the performative nature of photography. on orchestrated accidents in photographic
Arcades Project (1999), which Weinberg cites as From the outset Bleyen and Decan practice’ is particulary interesting to humour
an influence in his introduction. The resulting acknowledge the eternal dilemma of the theorists and to readers less familiar with
book is perhaps less radical in its approach humour theorist: ‘to explain a joke is to ruin art practices in Eastern Europe. Ruchel-
to this material than this comparison might it’ (p.20). They also point out some of the Stockmans uses the theories of Baudelaire,
suggest, but Weinberg’s history is nuanced formal and even technical affinities between Bergson and others to examine ‘the fall’ –
and the extensive illustrations are rich and the joke and the photograph. They ask, for artists depicting literal, physical falling – in
satisfying. Although the book’s epilogue could example, how does ‘the choice for the single Polish photography in the 1970s and 1980s
have gone further in portraying the ghosts image or the sequence play with the tension and Tomek Bagiński’s macabre animated
of the piers in the present, the decision to between duration (the building up of a joke) short film Fallen Art (2004), in which ‘a
eschew a ‘critique of the supposed alienation and the instantaneous (the joke hitting group of [CGI] soldiers is coerced to commit
of the early-twenty-first century’ (p.17) allows its target)?’ (p.18). They are open to broad suicidal jumps purely for the sake of creating
for a fuller reckoning with a queer cultural interpretations of ‘performance’, stating at a mesmerizing and lively dance on screen’
past that is all too easily invoked in the the outset that their ‘interest lies both in the (p.47), in the nexus of humour, visual art and
nostalgic service of a beleaguered present. performance done in front of the camera, accidental versus arranged performance. She
often specifically created for the camera, and concludes that even accidental, slapstick
1 S. Boym: The Future of Nostalgia, New York in the performative work done by the medium falls – for the ‘faller’ and the viewer alike –
2001, p.xvi.
2 A. Sergio Bessa, ed.: exh. cat. The Life and Times itself ’ (p.19). The ‘performative work’ done ‘entail [. . .] an encounter, even if fleeting, with
of Alvin Baltrop, New York (Bronx Museum of the by the practice of photography, they argue, one’s own death. Humor should therefore be
Arts) 2019–20.
citing contributor Esther Leslie as well as understood as laughter tinged with a darker
Walter Benjamin, is closely related to the note’ (p.62).
‘work’ done by laughter; both are forms of Part two (‘Making Fun of Photography
Photography Performing Humor ‘articulation’ that ‘shatter [. . .] the coherence, through Tricks and Montage’) comprises
Edited by Mieke Bleyen and Liesbeth Decan. the assumed, conventional consistency of three essays, which examine, respectively,
216 pp. incl. 15 col. + b. & w. ills. (Leuven the world’ (p.31). The essays that follow the humour in spirit photography (by Louis
University Press, Leuven, 2019), £36.95. introduction are similarly probing and open- Kaplan, whose 2016 book Photography and
ISBN 978–94–6270–165–6. minded when defining their terms. Humour was a key inspiration for Bleyen’s
The book is divided into three sections. and Decan’s interest in the topic), the
by seth graham The four essays in part one (‘Finding representation of photography in silent film
Humor in the Photographic Event’) isolate comedies (Hilde D’haeyere) and female
In their introduction to this conceptually and different moments, or events, in photography subjectivity in Dreams (1948–51), a series of
visually rich volume of essays, Mieke Bleyen including staging in portraiture (in Esther photomontages by the Argentine Surrealist
and Liesbeth Decan note that scholarship on Leslie’s contribution), the role of the artist Grete Stern (Anna Corrigan and
photography and affect has focused mostly photographer’s shadow (Ann Kristin Krahn) Susana S. Martins). The last of these essays
on ‘suffering, trauma and loss’ (p.19), while and the photographic documentation of is noteworthy for its insightful use of the
the medium’s other emotive associations, performance art (Kevin Atherton). Katarzyna concept of ‘fugitivity’ in describing Stern’s
BOOKS MAR20.indd 270 18/02/2020 16:08

Books
particular deployment of photographic treatment of traditional themes. The a development of an idiom that had
humour as a form of feminist subversion. authors rightly pay tribute in their originated with Christopher Whall, Robert
Part three (‘Photographic Wit in acknowledgements to the late Nicola Gordon Anning Bell and many other designer-
Conceptual Art’), consists of three essays, two Bowe, who wrote definitive studies of Harry craftworkers of the British Arts and Crafts
of which focus on conceptualist photography Clarke’s work. Unfortunately, Costigan and Movement. Citing a publication from 1963
in particular countries (Johan Pas on Belgian Cullen have not even vaguely aspired to as ‘recent’ and a 2014 Daily Express article
artists’ photobooks and Sandra Križić Roban Bowe’s meticulous scholarship. Essentially as an iconographical source indicates that
on conceptual photography in Croatia). just a pictorial album with extended captions research was rudimentary, as does the
Heather Diack’s comparison of the use of as text, the book adds virtually nothing repetitious text with its garbled technical
the deadpan expression in conceptualism of significance to the growing corpus of observations and confused terminology (the
with the role of the straight man in comedy literature on Clarke and, in seemingly Celtic saint Gormgail was allegedly ‘noted
stands out, both for its choice of illustrations, exercising minimal editorial scrutiny, Irish for his aestheticism’ rather than for his
which include conceptualist photography Academic Press (publisher of several books asceticism). Except perhaps for unenquiring
of the 1960s and 1970s alongside an image of by Bowe) has overlooked the book’s many and uncritical admirers of Clarke’s work, this
comic duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and flaws. Illustrations of details in Clarke’s book falls far short of doing justice to
her conclusion that laughter and humour windows – from Cullen’s photographs – its subject, or of usefully contributing to
are ‘absolutely formative to understanding are central to this project, yet the colour the study of modern stained glass.
conceptual art’ (p.157). reproduction is occasionally poor and some
The book is well designed, with black- images are blurred.
and-white illustrations in every chapter. It is not possible to write seriously
The essays are bookended by colourful about stained glass without a proper Brought to Life: Eliot Hodgkin
(and humorous) ‘artist’s pages’ by Paulien understanding of the materials and processes Rediscovered
Oltheten, Lieven Segers and David of the craft, something that Costigan and Edited by Adrian Eeles. 144 pp. incl. 130 col.
Helbich, demonstrating the editors’ stated Cullen manifestly lack. They claim, for ills. (Rothschild Foundation, Waddesdon, in
commitment to giving the book ‘both a example, that the robes of a Christ figure association with Paul Holberton Publishing,
theoretical and practice-based component’ (in a window at Dingle, County Kerry) 2019), £35. ISBN 978–1–911300–57–1.
(p.22). Stills from Oltheten’s La Défense, The ‘emit [. . .] shades of scarlet and magenta
Venturing Gaze, which open the book (Fig.9), as they reflect the light’, whereas stained by matthew holliday
exemplify the implicit self-reflexivity of much glass windows actually transmit light and
photographic practice. Oltheten includes colour: they do not ‘reflect’ them. Clarke, The catalogue under review accompanied an
subtitles of humorous comments made by like most artists in the medium, created exhibition of the same name at Waddesdon
the people photographed, making subjects of his palette by carefully selecting glasses Manor, Buckinghamshire, in 2019. Together
the camera and the photographer themselves. that had already been coloured by the glass they marked the first major assessment
Bleyen’s and Decan’s book will be useful manufacturer, which he then modified and of painter Eliot Hodgkin (1905–1987) in
to scholars and those with an interest in enhanced with monochrome paint and almost thirty years, collecting some one
photography and humour theory, as well as acid etching. He did not, as the authors hundred works from across the artist’s career
individuals interested more generally in the suggest in their description of his window including his celebrated still-life pictures in
affective turn in art criticism. at Bedworth, Warwickshire, ‘stain’ clear tempera. The son of a prominent Quaker
glass with hues of ‘purple, blue and green’. family, Hodgkin was related to both the critic
Nor does their assertion that ‘Clarke’s and painter Roger Fry (both men belonged
Short reviews intention was to create a three-dimensional

affect [sic] so that the main figures stood out
against the background’ glazing make any
to the Society of Painters in Tempera) and
Howard Hodgkin. Neil MacGregor recalls
an occasion from his tenure as Editor of The
sense when one considers the emphatically Burlington Magazine (1981–86) when, without
Dark Beauty: Hidden Detail in Harry two-dimensional character so evident in his notice, the telephone rang – it was Mr
Clarke’s Stained Glass windows, achieved through the graphic use of Hodgkin on the line. ‘Howard!’ he exclaimed.
By Lucy Costigan and Michael Cullen. 270 pp. lead-lines and flat ornamental patterns. It is ‘No’, came the reply, ‘it’s only Eliot. But I’ve
incl. over 300 col. + b. & w. ills. (Irish Academic difficult to believe that the authors have ever got used to being always the bridesmaid’.1
Press, Newbridge, 2019), £29.99. read a manual of the craft or meaningfully Adrian Eeles provides an excellent
ISBN 978–1–7853–233–9. communicated with any of its practitioners. contribution to the present volume, taking
Clarke belonged to a school of Arts and the reader on a whistle-stop tour of Hodgkin’s
by peter cormack Crafts glaziers whose work regenerated the career, from his spell as a fashion illustrator
art form in Ireland, Britain and America, in the early 1930s to his later preoccupation
Harry Clarke (1889–1931) is the best- but the authors seem resolutely unaware of with small still-life subjects, jewel-like in
known member of the school of stained the fact. Their bibliography lists only eight their vibrancy and detail. Throughout,
glass designer-makers that flourished in books (all but one about Clarke himself ) Eeles follows his own advice, that Hodgkin’s
early twentieth-century Dublin. His work and their text fails to recognise how much output should be judged as a whole, reaching
is especially renowned for its intricate the artist’s use of narrative and ornamental beyond those familiar studies of dahlias,
craftsmanship and distinctive iconographical detail as well as his craft techniques were lemons, feathers and masonry to include
BOOKS MAR20.indd 271 18/02/2020 16:08

Books
his landscapes and war-time paintings – an collection). Elsewhere the catalogue locates the critic Brian Sewell and Howard Hodgkin,
admirable aim, if somewhat hindered by the Hodgkin among his contemporaries, with who was Eliot’s cousin. Also included is ‘How
inclusion of View of San Francesco (1965; private memoirs by the connoisseur Brinsley Ford, I paint in tempera’, Hodgkin’s contribution
to the 1967 edition of Tempera: Yearbook of the
Society of Painters in Tempera, which provides a
pleasing foray into the stuff of painting: the
jars and brushes, powdered colours and china
palettes, evoking the physical presence of
Hodgkin as he moves about his studio.
Where this book excels is in its
reproductions. Here, surely, a new standard
has been set, one that puts recent catalogues
by our national galleries to shame. There
is no distortion, no poor resolution, which
is essential for paintings of such deliberate
linearity; each image finds itself perfectly
situated on the page. In this context, works
such as Summer afternoon (1937; private
collection) and the series Twelve Months of
the Year (1950–51; Fig.10) are given the space
to convey their subtlety and meticulous
design. Indeed, one feels that every effort
has been made to encourage this dialogue, to
allow Hodgkin’s charm to speak for itself.
1 N. MacGregor: ‘The beauty of Brussels sprouts’, in
the present catalogue, p.15.
10. May, from the Twelve Months of the Year,

by Eliot Hodgkin. 1951. Tempera on board, 26.7
by 22.3 cm. (Ramsbury Manor Foundation;
photograph AJ Photography).
among this month’s contributors
David Bindman is Emeritus Christiane Elster is a researcher James C.S. Lin is Senior Assistant Geoffrey Nuttall is an independent
Professor of the History of Art, at the Zentralinstitut für Keeper of Applied Arts at the Fitzwilliam art historian with a special interest
University College London and Fellow Kunstgeschichte, Munich. Museum, Cambridge. in art and patronage in Lucca
of the Hutchins Center for African during the late Middle Ages
and African American Research, Riccardo Gennaioli is an art historian Stéphane Loire is Curator of and Renaissance.
Harvard University. at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century
Laboratori di Restauro of Florence. Italian Paintings at the Musée du Gianni Papi is a scholar of
Gemma Blackshaw is Professor Louvre, Paris. Caravaggio and the Caravaggesque.
at the Royal College of Art, London. Philippa Glanville is an independent social
historian specialising in silver. Rosalind McKever is a curator at the Jack Parlett is a junior research fellow
Dominik Brabant is an art historian Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in English at the University of Oxford.
and Assistant Professor at the Albert Godycki has recently completed and a specialist in modern Italian art.
University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. a PhD on Haarlem Mannerism at the Joanna Pawlik is a lecturer in art
Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Eckart Marchand is a member of history at the University of Sussex.
Kee Il Choi Jr is a doctoral the international research group
candidate in the History of Art Ittai Gradel is an independent art historian. ‘Bilderfahrzeuge: Aby Warburg’s Andrew Spira is an independent
at the Leiden University Centre Legacy and the Future of Iconology’ author and curator.
for the Arts in Society. Seth Graham is Associate Professor in and Archival Assistant at the
the School of Slavonic and East European Warburg Institute, London. Daniel R. Stewart is a lecturer in ancient
Joseph Connors is Research Professor Studies at University College London. history at the University of Leicester.
at Harvard University. John Marciari is Head of the Department
Martin Holman is an independent of Drawings and Prints and Curatorial Amy Tobin is a lecturer in the
Aileen Dawson is a former art historian. Chair at the Morgan Library and Department of History of Art,
curator in Department of Prehistory Museum, New York. University of Cambridge and Curator
and Europe at the British Kirstin Kennedy is Curator of Silver at at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
Museum, London. the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Johannes Nathan is an art dealer and
art historian and co-chair of The Teresa Leonor M. Vale is Assistant
Dorothea Diemer is a retired art Kamila Kociałkowska is a PhD candidate International Art Market Studies Professor at ARTIS, the Institute of Art
historian based in Munich. at the University of Cambridge. Association (artmarketstudies.org). History at the University of Lisbon.
BOOKS MAR20.indd 272 18/02/2020 17:07

oct19contractpublishing.qxp_Ratton & Ladriere Sept 04 18/09/2019 12:30 Page 1
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march 2020

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